tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556Sat, 14 Feb 2015 21:48:56 +0000GovernmentObamaDemocratsHistoryEconomyFreedomMediaHealth CareDefenseReligionEnvironmentElectionsGeographyTaxesSupreme CourtWashingtonBritainEnergyRepublicansChinaEgyptIsraelTechnologyMetroMusicSportsWeatherThe Prolix Patriothttp://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)Blogger141125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-5376792718686850348Wed, 02 Oct 2013 00:42:00 +00002013-10-01T20:45:13.408-04:00FreedomGovernmentHooray for Federalism!<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N3kLilJJyiA/Uktn19uZ3JI/AAAAAAAAAoU/jKyETyUXyA8/s1600/Alexis_de_tocqueville.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: none; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N3kLilJJyiA/Uktn19uZ3JI/AAAAAAAAAoU/jKyETyUXyA8/s320/Alexis_de_tocqueville.jpg" width="238" /></a><br />Alexis de Tocqueville</div><br /><br />Amidst the political and media hysterics, it's helpful to remember that the government is not really shut down at all, even at the federal level--many of its functions remain intact. Move importantly, thanks to the genius of our federal system, the impact to the daily life of most Americans has not been particularly noticeable. To see just how little has changed outside of the Beltway, here's a partial listing of public services that will continue to function in the rest of the nation:<br /><br />Sanitation and Environment:<br /><br />Clean water will still flow to your house. Trash and recycling will still be collected. The streets and sidewalks will still be kept clean. Sewage will still be treated. State and local emission controls will still remain in effect. State and local laws will still protect streams and rivers from dumping and runoff. Natural resources will be protected.<br /><br />Health and Safety:<br /><br />Criminal laws will be enforced. Police, fire, and EMS will still respond to 911. State and local health departments will still offer immunizations and free clinics for the poor. Inspectors will still ensure proper food preparation. Hospitals will still admit patients in the emergency room. Fire marshals will still inspect public buildings.<br /><br />Education:<br /><br />Public and private universities will still have classes. Elementary and secondary schools will remain open. School busses will run. Libraries will let you check out a book or browse the internet for free. State, local, and privately-funded museums, zoos, aquariums, and bird sanctuaries will remain open to the public.<br /><br />Transportation:<br /><br />Traffic lights will still function. Street lamps will still light. State and local police will still enforce traffic laws. Road signs and markings will be maintained. Construction of roads and bridges will continue. Highway and bridge tolls will be collected. Public transit will still run. Driver's licenses will still be issued. Traffic cameras will still monitor for backups--and red-light runners.<br /><br />Commerce:<br /><br />Sales taxes will still be collected. Fuel pumps will still be inspected. Telecommunications will still be regulated. Electricity will still be delivered. Liquor licenses will still be issued. Barbers and cosmetologists will still be certified. Zoning and building permits will still be issued. Minimum wage will still be enforced. Contracts, deeds, titles, articles of incorporation, and other public records will remain accessible and in full force.<br /><br />Quality of Life:<br /><br />State and local parks, forests, and game lands will remain open. Hunting and fishing licenses will still be issued. State and local first responders will still provide security at sporting and entertainment events. Tourism and neighborhood committees will still work to attract visitors and residents.<br /><br />And there's so much more. Tocqueville would be proud! <a href="http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/DETOC/1_ch08.htm">As he wrote</a>:<br /><br />In great centralized nations the legislator is obliged to give a character of uniformity to the laws, which does not always suit the diversity of customs and of districts; as he takes no cognizance of special cases, he can only proceed upon general principles; and the population are obliged to conform to the requirements of the laws, since legislation cannot adapt itself to the exigencies and the customs of the population, which is a great cause of trouble and misery. This disadvantage does not exist in confederations; Congress regulates the principal measures of the national government, and all the details of the administration are reserved to the provincial legislatures. One can hardly imagine how much this division of sovereignty contributes to the well-being of each of the states that compose the Union. In these small communities, which are never agitated by the desire of aggrandizement or the care of self-defense, all public authority and private energy are turned towards internal improvements. The central government of each state, which is in immediate relationship with the citizens, is daily apprised of the wants that arise in society; and new projects are proposed every year, which are discussed at town meetings or by the legislature, and which are transmitted by the press to stimulate the zeal and to excite the interest of the citizens. This spirit of improvement is constantly alive in the American republics, without compromising their tranquillity; the ambition of power yields to the less refined and less dangerous desire for well- being. It is generally believed in America that the existence and the permanence of the republican form of government in the New World depend upon the existence and the duration of the federal system; and it is not unusual to attribute a large share of the misfortunes that have befallen the new states of South America to the injudicious erection of great republics instead of a divided and confederate sovereignty. <br /><br /><br /><div style="width: 100%;"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2013/10/hooray-for-federalism.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-8715716257484199702Tue, 09 Jul 2013 00:42:00 +00002013-07-08T22:09:01.975-04:00DemocratsGovernmentHealth CareObamaThe President's Masterpiece<br/>Or "The Affordable Care Act"<br />With Apologies to Oliver Wendell Holmes<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-small; text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bCab7CvLZAE/UdtYiRRMwFI/AAAAAAAAAmk/yGtIBz-7lRM/s1600/one_hoss_shay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: none; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="299" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bCab7CvLZAE/UdtYiRRMwFI/AAAAAAAAAmk/yGtIBz-7lRM/s320/one_hoss_shay.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />The Original Inspiration</div><br /><br />HAVE you heard of the wonderful <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act" style="text-decoration: none;">Affordable Care Act</a>,<br />That was written with such logical tact<br />It lasted three years to the day,<br />And then of a sudden, it--ah, but stay,<br />I’ll tell you what happened without delay,<br />Scaring the media into fits,<br />Frightening people out of their wits,--<br />Have you ever heard of that, I say?<br />Two-thousand plus five and five.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrd">Robert Byrd</a> was then alive,--<br/>Snuffy old drone from the mountain hive.<br />That was the year when Dallas-town<br />Saw the sky open and <a href="http://www.wfaa.com/younews/88802057.html">snow fall down</a>,<br />And McChrystal’s report <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-runaway-general-20100622">was done so brown</a>,<br />Left without a star to his crown.<br />It was on that night with Texas snow packed<br />That the President finished his Affordable Care Act.<br /><br br="" />Now in writing of laws, I tell you what,<br />There is always <i>somewhere</i> a weakest spot,--<br />In loophole, kickback, flaw, or omission,<br />In oversight, fine print, clause, or provision,<br />In title, chapter, subsection,--lurking still,<br />Find it somewhere, you must and will,--<br />Above or below, or within, or without,--<br />And that’s the reason, beyond a doubt,<br />A law <i>breaks down</i>, but doesn’t <i>wear out</i>.<br /><br br="" />But the President swore he would persevere,<br />With a "Yes we can," and a "Let me be clear,"<br />He would build ObamaCare to beat the town<br />and the county and all the country round;<br />It should be so built that it couldn’t break down;<br />--"For," said the President, "’Tis mighty plain<br />That the weakest clause must stand the strain;<br />And the way to fix it, is I maintain<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;At the last minute<br />To <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV-05TLiiLU">pass the bill to find out what’s in it</a>."<br /><br br="" />So the President inquired of the Congressional staffers<br />Where he could find the longest chapters,<br />That couldn’t be read nor written nor spoke,--<br />That was to provide a veil of smoke;<br />He sent for lobbyists to whip up the vote;<br />The amendments were many, with strenuous pleas;<br />The votes were postponed, so no one could flee,<br />But stayed in the Capitol for things like these;<br />The law would dispense with the ancient vellum--<br />Liberty destroyed,--they kept trying to tell ‘em,<br />Never had the Constitution been so at grips,<br />And the arguments flew from between their lips,<br />Their deaf ears frizzled like celery-tips;<br /><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/05/mary-landrieu-defends-lou_n_450476.html">Louisiana Purchase</a>, <a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/gop_blasts_kickback_health_fix_dAelgwc0jXXhMD6fwB05IK">Cornhusker kickbacks</a>,<br />Pork-barrel needles in regulatory haystacks,<br />All the Democrats lined up, Yellow Dogs turned blue;<br /><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704207504575130081383279888.html">Deem and pass</a>, free abortion a linchpin too;<br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/10/us/politics/10stupak.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0">Stupak’s amendment</a>, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323393804578557802237872788.html">Nantucket sleigh-ride</a>, <br />Found in the hopper when old lion Ted died.<br />That was the way he "put her through."--<br />"There!" said the President, "now she’ll do!"<br /><br br="" />Do! I tell you, I rather guess<br />She was a wonder, and nothing less!<br />Coverage for all, no premiums to pay,<br />But the Democrats’ majority dropped away,<br />Free birth control and abortions,--where are they?<br />But there stood the stout old Affordable Care Act<br />As fresh as the day the President signed it in fact!<br /><br br="" />ONE HUNDRED days;--it came and found<br />The President’s masterpiece strong and sound.<br />Two hundred days again;--<br />ObamaCare, they called it then.<br />Seven-hundred thirty came;--<br />Running as usual; much the same.<br />One thousand days at last arrive,<br />And then came one thousand and NINETY FIVE.<br /><br br="" />Little of all we value here<br />Wakes on the morn of its third full year<br />Without both feeling and looking queer.<br />In fact, there’s nothing that keeps its youth,<br />So far as I know, but a tree and truth.<br />(This is a moral that runs at large;<br />Take it.--You're welcome.--No extra charge.)<br /><br br="" />TWENTY-FIRST OF MARCH,--the emergency rooms are packed.--<br />There are traces of age in the Affordable Care Act,<br />A general flavor of mild decay,<br />But nothing local as one may say.<br />There couldn’t be,--for the President’s art<br />Had made it so like in every part<br />That there was not a chance for one to start.<br />For the employer mandate was just as strong as the insurance exchanges,<br />And the individual mandate was just as strong as the original pages,<br />And the Medicaid expansion still gave free pills to the poor,<br />And the guaranteed coverage was neither less nor more,<br />And the premium support as strong as before,<br />And <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/01/06/how-many-businesses-are-exempt-the-final-number-of-obamacare-waivers-is-in/">waivers</a> and loopholes, <i>encore</i>.<br />And yet, <i>as a whole</i>, it is past doubt<br />In another few months it will be <i>worn out</i>!<br /><br br="" />Twenty-first of March, Twenty-thirteen!<br />This morning the HHS Secretary can’t be seen.<br />Now, civil servants, hide from the media, get back!<br />Here comes the wonderful Affordable Care Act,<br />Regulatory uncertainty growing by the day.<br />"<a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2013/June/06/transplant-list.aspx">No Lung Transplants</a>!" said the HHS Secretary.--Off went they.<br />The HHS Secretary was working on her <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/04/sebelius-defends-obamacare-fundraising/">fundraising text</a>,--<br />Had <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/307373-sebelius-nfl-might-help-promote-obamacare-enrollment">got to the NFL</a>, and stopped perplexed<br />At what the--<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Fluke">Fluke</a>--was coming next.<br />All at once the presses stood still,<br />Waiting for word from Capitol Hill.<br />--First a shiver, and then a thrill,<br />Then something <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/07/02/white-house-delays-employer-mandate-requirement-until-2015/">decidedly like a spill</a>,--<br />And the Treasury Secretary was getting ready to fly,<br />At the end of the day before the fourth of July,--<br />Just the hour to hide from any media reply!<br />--What do you think the Treasury Secretary found,<br />When he got up and stared around?<br />The poor old law in a heap or mound,<br />As if it had been to the mill and ground!<br />You see, of course, if you’re not a dunce,<br />How it went to pieces all at once,--<br />All at once, and nothing first,--<br />Just as bubbles do when they burst.<br /><br />End of the wonderful Affordable Care Act.<br />Logic is logic, and that’s a fact.<br /><br /><br /><div style="width: 100%;"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-presidents-masterpiece.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-2109617578534007976Mon, 15 Apr 2013 01:07:00 +00002013-04-14T21:08:20.142-04:00HistoryFire in the Sky--A War Story<br>Philippines, Summer 1945:<br /><br />The great nations of the world have waged terrible war for more than five years, but my grandfather is still a young man, eager and fresh-eyed, ready for anything. He tried to join the Army the day after Pearl Harbor, but the Lieutenant at the New Haven recruiting station told him to wait--the war would still be raging when he graduated from college. The Lieutenant would eventually be proven wrong. Classes at Yale were cancelled in 1944.<br /><br />Now, he is halfway around the globe, 15,000 feet above Manila Bay. The sleek silver lines of his C-47 slice through the tropical breeze while the twin turbocharged 14-cylinder engines split the air with a deafening roar. A platoon of soldiers is in the back, passing time on the first leg of a long journey home. Some of the men are sleeping; others listen to Tokyo Rose on a shortwave radio and play cards.<br /><br />They are bound for Leyte, where transport ships are waiting to rotate out the victorious beachstormers for a little R&amp;R back in the states. Even as they fly over the remaining pockets of Japanese-held territory, thoughts of war and slaughter are already receding into memory, rarely to be spoken of in the presence of those who were never there. One of the men is re-reading a letter from his girlfriend for the 100th time--she has accepted his marriage proposal.<br /><br />My grandfather is looking out the side window at a fishing junk trawling the gentle turquoise-green waters when suddenly the pilot shouts out, "FIRE! Engine One!" Thoughts racing, he remembers the technical briefing he had taken only two days earlier as he lunges up from his seat and into the main compartment. Counter to every instinct, he screams above the roar of the engines and frantically pulls the crew chief's hands away from the bright red handle with the neatly stenciled letters "CO2 EXTINGUISHER."<br /><br />Although words only come out in blurts and sputters, the message is received loud and clear. The crew chief backs down. My grandfather would later explain that the extinguisher is not designed to put out an engine fire; it only has 15 seconds worth of carbon dioxide, not nearly enough to smother such a large blaze. Instead, the situation now slightly calmer, my grandfather returns to the cockpit to assist the pilot with the still burning engine.<br /><br />They must first cut out the burning engine to stop the supply of gasoline. My grandfather takes the controls, struggling to keep the plane level on only one engine. Meanwhile, the pilot is busy watching fuel and temperatures gauges--the magic number is 495 degrees Fahrenheit, the ignition point. Unless the engine cools below this temperature, it will catch fire when the fuel starts flowing again. Everybody on board holds his breath, hoping the fuel will stop leaking--nobody wants to crash-land behind enemy lines on the trip home.<br /><br />Agonizingly tense minutes pass by, the intensity mounting and magnified by the stifling equatorial sun. Each man privately wonders if the remaining engine will sputter out, sending them all violently earthward. The shortwave radio is no longer playing. The soldiers in the main compartment are staring holes through the cockpit bulkhead as if they can see the pilot, perhaps to discern by some imperceptible sign a change in his expression that will signal their deliverance. The roar of the engine is the only sound. It is the sound of life.<br /><br />Suddenly, the plane shudders as my grandfather wrestles with the controls. The second engine is spinning up as the pilot gently eases the throttle all the way forward. The men erupt in cheers, not knowing that the plane is still in danger. If they keep flying, the joint in the engine will heat back up and start leaking again. Partly to avoid attracting unwanted attention from the Japanese and partly to avoid frightening the soldiers, my grandfather does not signal mayday.<br /><br />As the pilot scans the area looking for a safe place to land, a slash of white in the jungle catches his eye. My grandfather is now busy with maps of the area, but this airstrip is not marked. His maps are a few weeks old. He fixes their general position based on the features of the nearby shoreline and a nearby town. The airstrip is in newly captured territory. The Seabees have finished their work just in time.<br /><br />Maintaining radio silence, they begin to circle around for landing. The pilot attempts to lower the landing gear, but only one wheel comes down. The fire has damaged the starboard wing more than they first realized. The electrical wiring and hydraulics are completely out of commission. My grandfather signals to the pilot to circle back around for another attempt. This time the crew chief will have to manually lower the jammed landing gear.<br /><br />The silver fuselage sparkles in the sun as the plane banks in a great sweeping arc in the sky. To an observer on the ground, it must look like some futuristic, metallic bird of prey, circling for the kill. Inside the bird's aluminum belly, the crew chief is frantically cranking away with a small wrench, but the landing gear doesn't budge an inch. To make matters worse, the port landing gear will not retract either. It will be a rough landing.<br /><br />The crew chief commands all aboard to brace themselves as the pilot circles around one last time, they will only get one chance now, they've lost too much altitude. As they level off, my grandfather sees construction equipment sitting on the side of the runway. The plane buffets as the pilot narrowly misses a row of telephone wires and then they come smoothly down until the plane is just above the runway. "This is it! Brace for landing!"<br /><br />In the next instant, there is a sound of crunching and grating metal. Just as the lone wheel rips into the concrete, the left wing hurtles sideways towards the ground and starts to drag. Both my grandfather and the pilot muster every last bit of strength to keep the plane from spinning out of control into the line of bulldozers. Without hydraulics, they only just manage to keep on a more or less straight path down the runway. The smell of gasoline and burning rubber fills the air.<br /><br />When the plane finally comes to rest, every man runs like hell to get away from the mangled wreckage. With hundreds of gallons of gasoline everywhere, the slightest spark would spell the end of anybody unfortunate enough to be within fifty yards of the ensuing explosion. My grandfather is one of the last to jump clear of the wrecked plane. The plane is tilted crazily and the cockpit door is 15 feet above the ground, but he manages to roll into the ground and run to safety.<br /><br />My grandfather finally stops to catch his breath and before he can even turn to survey the damage to his plane, he sees a Jeep driving up from the small encampment on the edge of the jungle clearing. He quickly realizes this is a Colonel with his driver, and jerks his body to attention only to be painfully reminded how badly he is bruised from the crash. The Colonel dismounts and storms up to my grandfather asking, "are you the pilot?!" My grandfather politely responds in the negative.<br /><br />"You should have ditched in the bay! We just finished construction here, the General is on his way for an inspection, and you just put a big old scratch on my runway!" In reply, my grandfather would like to inform the Colonel on the <i>exact probability</i> of success of a water landing with this particular model of airplane, which is to say, zero. Instead, he manages an obviously strained, "yes, sir." Despite my grandfather's having just saved the lives of the flight crew and a whole platoon, the Colonel mutters a few oaths under his breath and then storms off to his Jeep and speeds away.<br /><br />Epilogue:<br /><br />It will be a long wait until another plane can come to transport my grandfather and his passengers to Leyte and even longer until my grandfather will see the shores of California again. Despite the Colonel's poor assessment of his flying skills, my grandfather will soon be promoted to a special detail, flying the top Army brass back and forth between forward bases, always flying over enemy territory.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the whole might of the American military prepares for the last invasion: Japan itself. My grandfather even trains to lead the first wing of paratroopers on X-Day, as it's called, but after the atomic bomb brings the war to an early end, he will instead spend two years with the occupation force before he finally returns home to complete his studies at Yale.<br /><br />Nearly 70 years after these exploits, William James Gardner passed away on a Sunday evening in April. This story was only one of many, most of which we will never know. In the last years of his life, my grandmother placed a framed box of his war medals next to his bed, but like most of his generation, he spoke little of those days when the "whole world went crazy" as my grandmother once put it. He goes now to be reunited with so many brothers in arms who were called home all those years ago, every one of them covered with glory defending the nation that they loved so dearly.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FQMMOotynnQ/UWtSkpk-QPI/AAAAAAAAAlo/jc3kD0JCZBU/s1600/IMG_0672.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: none; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bua="true" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FQMMOotynnQ/UWtSkpk-QPI/AAAAAAAAAlo/jc3kD0JCZBU/s320/IMG_0672.jpg" width="320" /></a><br>My grandfather on his 90th birthday.</div><br /><br /><div style="width: 100%;"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2013/04/fire-in-sky-war-story.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-5901082887555477650Wed, 03 Apr 2013 03:29:00 +00002013-04-02T23:29:13.096-04:00HistoryTiny Pieces of History<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0H-YylyB-D8/UVugsNKhp8I/AAAAAAAAAlM/irXqnc7ZHTo/s1600/PIC_2496.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: none; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" mta="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0H-YylyB-D8/UVugsNKhp8I/AAAAAAAAAlM/irXqnc7ZHTo/s320/PIC_2496.JPG" width="320" /></a><br>Century-old glass shards</div><br />To follow up from the previous entry in these pages, the Prolix Patriot and family are settling into their new home and have experienced firsthand the joys of living in a historic urban neighborhood. Every yard is full of archaeological evidence (i.e., dead people's trash). In our case, there are countless little shards of colored glass all around the yard right on the surface. With the arrival of warmer weather and more extensive landscaping projects, there’s no telling what other discoveries we will make.<br /><br />A search of property records reveals that the glazier who left behind these tiny pieces of history was a certain <a href="http://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/cml_item_viewer.php?cobj=1&CISOROOT=/ohio&CISOPTR=3864&REC=3">Ludwig Von Gerichten</a> who was born in 1873 in Hesse in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_of_Germany">newly-formed German Empire</a>. It's unclear when he emigrated to the United States, but sometime in the 1890's, Ludwig and his brother Theodore had settled in Columbus, Ohio and founded the Von Gerichten Art Glass Company.<br /><br />More than 850 churches in the United States have windows that were made by hand at the Von Gerichten glassworks. One such example is the old <a href="http://www.oldtrinity.com/our-windows">Trinity Lutheran Church</a> and another example is the <a href="http://www.savesaintleo.org/stainedglass.shtml">now-defunct St. Leo Parish</a>, where Ludwig himself was probably a parishioner. <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=HQ-DgBzxfx4C&lpg=PA77&ots=WWDzw7t5EB&dq=Von%20Gerichten%20Art%20Glass%20Company&pg=PA77#v=onepage&q=Von%20Gerichten%20Art%20Glass%20Company&f=false">According to one source</a>, the brothers parted ways and the company was dissolved in 1931. Their factory--<a href="http://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/cml_item_viewer.php?cobj=1&CISOROOT=/ohio&CISOPTR=13407&REC=2">which was a work of art in its own right</a>--was eventually demolished in the 1960's to make way for the <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=428+South+High+Street+Columbus+oh&ll=39.953051,-82.998689&spn=0.003879,0.004093&hnear=428+S+High+St,+Columbus,+Ohio+43215&gl=us&t=h&z=18">Interstate Highway System</a>.<br /><br />The end of the Von Gerichten Art Glass Company was not the only tragedy in Ludwig’s life. Some years before that, his wife Katherine died and records indicate that he sold his house and <a href="http://www.ellisisland.org/search/matchMore.asp?MID=00119836740913839936&FNM=LUDWIG&LNM=VON+GERICHTEN&PLNM=VON+GERICHTEN&first_kind=1&kind=exact&offset=0&dwpdone=1">traveled between his glass studios</a> in <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=ZdICm_W8xKwC&lpg=PA894&ots=s5jILgPN9r&dq=ludwig%20von%20gerichten&pg=PA894#v=onepage&q=ludwig%20von%20gerichten&f=false">Europe and the United States</a>. Today, they are both <a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Von+Gerichten&GSiman=1&GScid=109024&GRid=21328153&">buried in Greenlawn Cemetery</a>, reunited more than 30 years after Katherine passed away much too young.<br /><br />However, the legacy of the Von Gerichten brothers lives on. The Franklin Art Glass Company was <a href="http://www.franklinartglass.com/shop/category.aspx/our-history/10/">co-founded in 1924 by the son</a> of the shop foreman of the Von Gerichten glassworks, Henry Helf, and is located just a few blocks from where the old Von Gerichten factory <a href="http://germanvillage.com/pdf/2010PretourMap.pdf">once stood</a>. The Franklin Art Glass Company still makes and repairs stained glass windows in the Old World tradition to this very day.<br /><br /><br /><div style="width: 100%;"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2013/04/tiny-pieces-of-history.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-2171671227734277942Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:25:00 +00002013-02-25T13:25:42.027-05:00EconomyEnvironmentFreedomGovernmentReligionWe Bought a House in the City<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G4m5XM1PkZw/USurGWwHlDI/AAAAAAAAAks/PvxtM_lDyQQ/s1600/Columbus-Ohio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: none; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gsa="true" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G4m5XM1PkZw/USurGWwHlDI/AAAAAAAAAks/PvxtM_lDyQQ/s320/Columbus-Ohio.jpg" width="320" /></a><br>Downtown Columbus, Ohio</div><br />The Prolix Patriot believes that the future of conservatism will depend on restoring and rebuilding our cities after decades of liberal decay and neglect, so he and the Missus purchased a house in the city to put his money where his mouth is, as it were. For the first time in the history of the world, <a href="http://www.unfpa.org/pds/urbanization.htm">more people live in cities than do not</a>. If conservatism is to remain a vital force in our civilization, we must bring our values back to the cities and our core institutions.<br /><br />There are many obstacles to this project of course. In a <a href="https://sites.stanford.edu/sssl/2008-obamamccain-vote-precinct">map of precinct-level election returns</a>, cities are the deepest of deep blue islands even in states that as a whole lean solidly to the right. Municipal elections are settled in Democratic primaries and the November elections might as well be like the Soviet Union where the only answer is "Yes." This is an unlikely place to look for conservative values. Living in the city is a decidedly counter-cultural proposition for us, especially when trying to have a large family.<br /><br />However, because of this, conservatives in cities know the value of community perhaps more acutely than their liberal neighbors. Whereas for liberals the many boards and committees of municipal government provide numerous opportunities for civic involvement, for conservatives the first unit of organization (after the family of course) is the parish, and unsurprisingly, the <a href="http://www.stpatrickcolumbus.com/">most vibrant and conservative parish in Columbus</a> is in the heart of the city, not at its periphery.<br /><br />Fortified by communities of faith and family, conservatives are better prepared to engage with people of differing opinions instead of succumbing to the liberal tendency towards <i><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704147804575455523068802824.html">oikophobia</a></i>. As conservatives, we can highlight the things that we do have in common with liberals without completely surrendering to radicalism. That said, instead of seeking to find common cause where none exists, we must use every opportunity to encourage our liberal neighbors to rethink their attitudes about conservatism—and perhaps even join our cause.<br /><br />As one example, conservatives can demonstrate that conservation of nature (as opposed to radical environmentalism) is best achieved by making cities a desirable place to live instead of punishing people for the economically rational decision to live in the outer suburbs. As another example, horrible schools deter families from living in the city. Groups like <a href="http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/germanvillage/news/2012/11/06/southside-stay-looking-to-improve-local-schools.html">Southside STAY</a> in Columbus recognize this problem. Conservatives should emphasize our commitment to school choice and teacher accountability as the means to restore urban schools and make it easier for large families to thrive.<br /><br />Many years ago, the Prolix Patriot wrote a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal defending the importance of cities even in an age where technology makes it easier to communicate across vast distances and sprawling infrastructure provides relatively quick access from the countryside to the urban core and vice-versa. These advances are wonderful in some ways but they also have their drawbacks, and they can never replace the value of proximity that nurtures and sustains communities and our society as a whole.<br /><br />Conservatives recognize that human nature does not change. Instead of the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/24/report-ny-mayor-bloomberg-bans-2-liter-sodas-pizza/">Bloombergian nanny-state</a> which tries to force people to live according to the latest fad, we recognize that the way to change behavior is by setting a good example ourselves and by providing incentives for others to do the right thing. It will take much time and effort to repair the damage (both physical and spiritual) that liberalism has inflicted on our cities over the past 50 years, but if we do not commit ourselves to the task, we cannot complain about the decaying and degraded society that our children will inherit.<br /><br /><br /><div style="width: 100%;"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2013/02/we-bought-house-in-city.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-5852262817961518784Thu, 31 Jan 2013 21:48:00 +00002013-01-31T16:50:24.299-05:00GeographyHistorySportsThe Raven and the Jumping Frog<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p0_5MNXColk/UQrjF9VRPfI/AAAAAAAAAj8/dIgMG5OPEcU/s1600/super_bowl_xlvii.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none; margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="185" width="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p0_5MNXColk/UQrjF9VRPfI/AAAAAAAAAj8/dIgMG5OPEcU/s320/super_bowl_xlvii.png" /></a><br>Quoth the Raven, "We're the Underdogs"</div><br>Sports writers have <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-01-27/sports/36583614_1_john-harbaugh-nfl-teams-basketball-team">spilled more than enough ink</a> writing about the strange coincidence that regardless of which team wins Super Bowl XLVII this weekend, it will be coached by a man named Harbaugh. Instead of dwelling on this piece of sports trivia, we will instead turn our attention to some other strange similarities between the two cities that the competing teams call home.<br><br>Both Baltimore and San Francisco are historic seaports due to their prime locations on a natural harbor. Baltimore is just upriver from the Chesapeake Bay in the East while San Francisco is forms one side of the mouth of the eponymous San Francisco Bay. As a result of their proximity to the two largest estuaries in the country, both cities have excellent seafood. The specialty in Baltimore is of course the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_cake">crab cake</a> while San Francisco is known as the birthplace of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cioppino"><i>cioppino</i></a> which was created by the large numbers of Italian fishermen who settled in San Francisco during the 19th Century. Speaking of Italians, it is also notable that former Speaker of the House, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Pelosi">Nancy Pelosi</a> was born in Baltimore where her father was Mayor but now represents San Francisco in Congress and is the first woman and the first Italian-American to serve as Speaker of the House.<br><br>Depending on where you're from, the term "Bay Bridge" may have a different meaning. In California, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_%E2%80%93_Oakland_Bay_Bridge">San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge</a> is infamous for having <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Loma_Prieta_earthquake">partially collapsed</a> during game three of the 1989 World Series and is in the process of being replaced to avoid a repeat performance. In the Mid-Atlantic region, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_Bay_Bridge">Chesapeake Bay Bridge</a> is equally infamous as a constant source of traffic delays, numerous fatal accidents, and persistent structural problems. Both are suspension bridges and prior to 1964, both bridges carried <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_50">U.S. Route 50</a> from sea to shining sea, although today Route 50's western terminus is now in Sacramento. The wise should avoid both bridges during the big game, just to be safe.<br><br>In addition to these geographic similarities, the cities are associated two of America's greatest men of letters. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe">Edgar Allan Poe</a>, who has been called the father of detective fiction and the master of the macabre, died in 1849 at the age of 40 under strange circumstances in Baltimore. The Balitmore Ravens are of course named after Poe's most famous poem. In keeping with the pervasive succession of tragedies in Poe's short life, he was paid only $9 for its publication. The year of Poe's death was also the height of the gold rush that gives the "Forty-niners" their name and some 15 years later, a young journalist and jack-of-all-trades named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain">Samuel Clemens</a> moved to San Francisco after having failed as a gold prospector. It was during this time that Clemens wrote a short story titled, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" under his pen name, "Mark Twain." This was his first major success and marked the start of a very long and brilliant career.<br><br>Despite these many similarities, "The City by the Bay" has always been more appealing in the public imagination than the so-called "Charm City." San Francisco conjures up images of flower-clad hippies, quaint cable cars, and the yeasty aroma of fresh-baked sourdough bread. Meanwhile, the biggest claims to fame for the city of Baltimore are a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wire">crime melodrama called "The Wire"</a> and a show about <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/ace-of-cakes/index.html">cakes that don't look like cake</a>. Even though it has been nicknamed "Fog City," most outsiders think of San Francisco as a sunny and cheerful place--which is most certainly is not. As Mark Twain <a href="http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/11/30/coldest-winter/">famously never said</a>, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." On the other hand, Baltimore's reputation as a gritty post-industrial wasteland is thoroughly well-deserved.<br><br>Perhaps this explains the map above. A <a href="http://deadspin.com/5979970/facebook-data-provides-the-most-accurate-nfl-fandom-map-ever-created">survey of Facebook users' personal preferences</a> shows that the San Francisco Forty-niners are the clear fan favorite this weekend while the Ravens enjoy only slim support along the Eastern Seaboard. Indeed, the only states which are solidly rooting for the Ravens are Maryland and Delaware. Every other state has at least one county rooting for the 'Niners and in all but a handful, San Francisco fans are in the majority, although most are admittedly of the fair-weather variety. Fortunately the Super Bowl is being held at an indoor stadium this year.<br><br><br><div style='width: 100%'><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-raven-and-jumping-frog.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-2785432444857158705Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:31:00 +00002013-01-25T12:36:55.222-05:00HistoryMusicReligionThe Road to Damascus<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XLKAB25MHyQ/UQK_goNVkNI/AAAAAAAAAjg/fAigqMY4obI/s1600/st-paul-conversion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="259" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XLKAB25MHyQ/UQK_goNVkNI/AAAAAAAAAjg/fAigqMY4obI/s320/st-paul-conversion.jpg" /></a><i><br>The Conversion of St. Paul</i>, 1767 by Nicolas-Bernard Lepicie</div><br>Saint Paul is no ordinary saint. Unlike much of the New Testament which was passed on through oral tradition by the apostles before being written down, we know with complete certainty that Paul's epistles were written during his life <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_the_Apostle#Authorship">by his own hand</a>--the same hand which had formerly whipped and shackled Christians. Aside from the divine figures of the Holy Family, Paul is arguably the most important figure in all of Christianity. As a convert, the Prolix Patriot has a special fondness for Paul's story because he shows us that it is never too late and no sin is too great when we come to that place on the road to Damascus in our own lives.<br><br>It is fitting then that in addition to the Feat of the Conversion of Saint Paul, today is also the <a href="http://www.marchforlife.org/">March for Life</a> in Washington, D.C. and many of the Prolix Patriot's dear friends will be there braving the bitter cold as witnesses to Jesus' triumph over death. The most heartbreaking and yet awe-inspiring point in the March for Life is always the women who have had abortions, but have since then come to regret that "choice" as it is so often euphemized. Like Paul, they have been stopped dead in their tracks and blinded by God's awesome love. Like Paul, these women have realized that even they can find forgiveness and hope. Their courage to speak out against abortion from personal experience is a testament to the eternal power of life over death and the victory of love over sin--and this testament must also stop us dead in our tracks as well.<br><br>Relatedly, in our national discourse we are called to consider the essence of womanhood by the Obama Administration's recent decision to <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/24/women-combat-change-panetta/1861995/">allow women to serve in combat duty</a>. Women have been endowed with the incredible power to participate in the creation of life. Just as we pray for conversion of those who have had abortions or are contemplating one, we also must pray that women can always be protectors of life--and perhaps even in the heat of in battle as medics or corpsmen--but should never be destroyers of life. It is bad enough when mothers must bury their sons as casualties of war, but a son should never have to bury his mother because of the enemy's bullet.<br><br>We live in times of persecution for people of faith, but Paul reminds us that even the persecutors themselves are nevertheless called by God's infinite love to righteousness just as the most devout believers are called to continuing conversion of heart to more fully emulate Jesus and to spread the Gospel. We must remember that Jesus in all of his dreadful power was born of a woman just like the rest of us. As a consequence, a proper respect for the protective and live-giving qualities of womanhood is essential if we seek to know the heart of Jesus.<br><br>As Goethe wrote and Mahler so powerfully set to music describing the epic final scene of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._8_(Mahler)#Part_II:_Closing_scene_from_Goethe.27s_Faust">Faust's redemption and ascent to Heaven</a>:<br><br><table cellpadding="10"><tr><td><i>Alles Vergängliche<br>Ist nur ein Gleichnis;<br>Das Unzulängliche,<br>Hier wird’s Ereignis;<br>Das Unbeschreibliche.<br>Hier ist's getan;<br>Das Ewig Weibliche<br>Zieht uns hinan. </i></td><td><i>All that is transitory<br>Is but an image;<br>The inadequacy of earth<br>Here finds fulfillment;<br>The ineffable<br>Here is accomplished;<br>The eternal feminine<br>leads us upwards. </i></td></tr></table><br>Even though Dr. Faust is a fictional character, we know from the example of Saint Paul that even a man who sold his soul to the Devil would still be able to repent and seek God's eternal mercy. Like Saint Paul, we are all living in blindness, but no matter how great our small our sins, we are all on the road to Damascus and Jesus is calling us.<br><br><br><div style='width: 100%'><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-road-to-damascus.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-506328774145101908Fri, 11 Jan 2013 16:38:00 +00002013-01-11T11:43:41.163-05:00GeographyHistoryWashingtonA Virginian in Ohio<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l9ZZAEVJnq0/UPA-eu5ocMI/AAAAAAAAAjE/w4tXCS1aQbg/s1600/virginia_in_ohio_map.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l9ZZAEVJnq0/UPA-eu5ocMI/AAAAAAAAAjE/w4tXCS1aQbg/s320/virginia_in_ohio_map.png" /></a></div><br>The Prolix Patriot recently relocated from his beloved native Virginia over the mountains to the Buckeye State of Ohio. The map above illustrates a selection of some of <i>homotoponyms</i> as well as a few <i>synotoponyms</i> from the greater Washington D.C. metropolitan area. The list is by no means exhaustive, but at first blush, it seems that Virginia especially has the most names in common with Ohio and this is for good reason. After the Revolutionary War, much of Southern Ohio was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Military_District">settled by soldiers from Virginia</a>, so it is no surprise that they, like the Prolix Patriot, would have chosen familiar place names to remind them of home.<br><br>The two states have much in common besides just place names. Both states are also nicknamed "<a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/has-ohio-or-virginia-produced-the-most-presidents">Mother of Presidents</a>." Virginia is the birthplace of no fewer than eight presidents. Meanwhile, Ohio is the birthplace of only seven, but claims an eighth as a native son. William Henry Harrison, who famously served as president for only 30 1/2 days was born in Virginia but also considered Ohio his home state. Ironically, his successor was John Tyler, a Virginian. Despite their reputations, the last president born in Virginia was Woodrow Wilson, born in Staunton in 1856, although he called New Jersey home when elected. The last president born in Ohio was Wilson's successor, Warren G. Harding, born in Blooming Grove in 1865. In more recent times, Virginia has joined Ohio as a pivotal battleground state in national politics. Both Virginia and Ohio are now must-win states for any candidate seeking the presidency.<br><br>From an economic standpoint, both Virginia and Ohio have a major industrial and shipping hub (Norfolk on the Chesapeake Bay and Cleveland on Lake Erie), a largely rural agricultural region (Tidewater Virginia and Northwest Ohio), a centrally located state capital with historic industry related to some vice (Tobacco in Richmond and Breweries in Columbus), an historic canal terminus and port located on a major river (Alexandria on the Potomac and Cincinnati on the Ohio), and finally a mountainous area rich in natural resources and wildlife, but generally regarded as the poorer part of the state socio-economically (Appalachian Virginia and Southeastern Ohio).<br><br>In some ways, the Prolix Patriot is still right at home. <br><br><div style='width: 100%'><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-virginian-in-ohio.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-4306330821563322481Thu, 27 Dec 2012 19:54:00 +00002012-12-27T14:55:39.737-05:00EconomyEnvironmentFreedomGovernmentObamaThe View at the Bottom of the Cliff<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KgsGlRV-4gw/UNyhSE4rtZI/AAAAAAAAAik/-CMKb88hdYY/s1600/avalanche.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none; margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KgsGlRV-4gw/UNyhSE4rtZI/AAAAAAAAAik/-CMKb88hdYY/s320/avalanche.jpg" /></a><br>Cliffs do not loom</div><br>As the old carol goes, "fast away the old year passes." In our frantic and impatient modern world there are never enough hours in the day, but with the shortness of the days in this bleak midwinter the sense of time passing far too quickly is only heightened. Paradoxically, these last fleeting and precious moments of the year are also a time to pause and take stock of where we have been and where we are going. At the end of the two-thousand twelfth year of our Lord, there is much to consider.<br><br>The Age of Obama has been extended for another four years and the so-called "fiscal cliff" is no longer merely "looming" [N.B., this should be a top contender for the cliche of the year], but is now a rumbling avalanche sliding down the mountain of debt and red tape to crush and bury us all. At the same time as we stare with horror into this thundering torrent of such immense and unimaginably massive doom it is also a time to consider how much less we have as well.<br><br>The liberals tell us that we are too fat, so we must have less food, less salt, less sugar, less trans-fats (whatever those are), and less carbohydrates. We must also have less alcohol, less smoking, and less of anything fun. This dread scourge does not only afflict us as adults though. Our children are too fat as well and there are too many of them. We need smaller children in smaller classrooms. In this respect, the liberals may get their wish, because we already have fewer children in smaller families. There are now fewer families with both parents present than there are children with single mothers or born out of wedlock.<br><br>The liberals tell us that the earth is getting warmer (or colder depending on who you ask and when), so we need to use less gasoline and have smaller cars (or no cars at all) and drive slower and not travel as far. We must use less coal, so that means less electricity, less warmth, less energy, and less light. We are told to spend more time outdoors, but there is less of that too. There is less solitude and less wilderness and the little that is left is farther away and harder to get to. There is less quality entertainment. There are fewer movies about heroic men. Perhaps there are fewer heroic men to make movies about, or perhaps it is because the liberals have demonized and deconstructed all the heroes of our past and turned them into villains.<br><br>The liberals tell us that we must not offend, so there is less prayer, less faith, less Christmas, less God. There are fewer practicing Christians. Perhaps it falls under entertainment, but there is less Tebow too. Hollywood celebrities with broken lives tell us how to live so it should not astonish us that there is less virtue, less fidelity, and less modesty. Dishonest politicians tell us they have all the answers and yet there are fewer principles, less integrity, less responsibility, less humility, less cooperation, and less trust in our public institutions. Despite having less freedom (or maybe because of it) there is less security and less peace. There is less pride in America, less dreaming, less exploration, and less hope for the future.<br><br>The liberal solution always seems to be less of something. There is too much violence, so we need fewer guns. There is too much inequality, so we need less prosperity. There is too much suffering, so we need less comfort. There is too much death, so we need less life. In the end, that last point encapsulates the rest. There seems to just be less for us to give and less of anything at all. People are tired and worn and holding on desperately for <i>something</i> to change, but they are less and less sure what that something even is. People are yearning for <i>more</i>. We want more freedom. We want more hope. We want more heroes. We want more <i><b>LIFE</b></i>. Let us pray that in the new year we may find some.<br><br><br><div style='width: 100%'><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-view-at-bottom-of-cliff.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-3169967751831638764Thu, 15 Nov 2012 19:20:00 +00002012-11-15T14:32:08.671-05:00GeographyThe United States of Jim<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KWClqvBjlBY/UKVDH63OrdI/AAAAAAAAAiE/KCtvFbcgqxY/s1600/US_Top_Male_Names.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="217" width="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KWClqvBjlBY/UKVDH63OrdI/AAAAAAAAAiE/KCtvFbcgqxY/s320/US_Top_Male_Names.png" /></a><br>What's in a name?</div><br>While strolling the boardwalk (which, sadly, has since been obliterated by Hurricane Sandy) in Seaside Heights, New Jersey this past August, the Prolix Patriot was discussing an interesting question with his brother-in-law. Namely, what is the most popular given name in each state? Our theory was that in New Jersey, with such a strong Italian population, names like Joseph and Paul might be more popular. However, as the infographic above clearly shows, this is incorrect. In fact, like the rest of the Northeast--and indeed in the country overall--the most common name in New Jersey is John.<br><br>Across the Old South--with the exception of Florida--and into some of the Midwestern states, the most popular name is James. It turns out that the popular stereotype of backwoods good ol’ boys named Jim Bob is not without some basis in fact. Also, it may suggest that Jim Beam ought to be the true Southerner’s whiskey of choice, as a preference for Jack Daniels might implicate the drinker as some damn Yankee scalawag. At the very least this confirms the Prolix Patriot’s preference for the former.<br><br>Turning to the upper Midwest and the West Coast, the popularity of Michael as a first name is clustered in two regions which oddly, have very little in common from a cultural standpoint. The prevalence of Michael in Wisconsin and Minnesota makes some sense as the Archangel Michael is the patron saint of sailors and the Scandinavians are famous for their maritime heritage. It is less clear how this rationale would apply to the thoroughly land-locked states of Colorado and Nevada however.<br><br>Meanwhile, the popularity of Robert is centered in areas typically associated with rugged individualism and self-sufficiency such as the high deserts of the Southwest, the bucolic isolation of Idaho and Wyoming, and the granite mountains and dense forests of New Hampshire and Maine. Suffice it to say, if you’re in a fight, you probably want Bob to have your back. Finally, there is the outlier of the bunch. Although David is only the fifth most popular name nationally, it is the most popular name in Utah and North Dakota. These two states are ironically like the proverbial David against the Goliath of the rest of the country.<br><br>The Prolix Patriot does not present a similar map for female names because the result would be trivial. In every one of the 50 states, the most popular female name is either Mary or Maria. However, it is clear that there are regional trends in first names for men. Although in recent years there have been many fads with non-traditional names for both boys and girls, the names we see here are of timeless and enduring popularity so it will be interesting to see whether the map has changed at all several decades from now.<br><br><br><div style='width: 100%'><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-united-states-of-jim.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-5141886776403822983Tue, 13 Nov 2012 19:04:00 +00002012-11-13T14:09:12.694-05:00HistoryThe 51st State<br>While most of the country was focused on the results of the presidential election, the citizens of Puerto Rico voted in a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/07/politics/election-puerto-rico/index.html">referendum on the question of becoming a state</a>. Although critics and opponents of statehood point out that many people left the statehood ballot blank and that, absent a clear majority, there is no guarantee that Puerto Rico will become a state, it is nevertheless true that more and more Puerto Ricans vote for statehood every time this kind of referendum is held, so it is really only a matter of time before Puerto Rico joins the Union. Therefore, the Prolix Patriot presents some ideas for a 51-star flag as a public service, inspired by designs from American history.<br><br><b>The Diamond:</b><br><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-94-kbX-Aqjo/UKKXIkwwjoI/AAAAAAAAAgQ/o1u9TcalTAk/s1600/51_Star_Diamond.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="168" width="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-94-kbX-Aqjo/UKKXIkwwjoI/AAAAAAAAAgQ/o1u9TcalTAk/s320/51_Star_Diamond.png" /></a></div><br>This design was popular in the middle of the 19th century, and is often depicted in artwork from the Civil War. Both the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_29_Star_Diamond_Pattern_Flag.svg">29-star</a> (pictured below) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_33_Star_Fort_Sumter_Flag.svg">33-star</a> flag are known to have used a diamond, after the admission of Iowa and Oregon respectively to the Union.<br><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qA1oaX_vMFY/UKKXlGgYq1I/AAAAAAAAAgg/eM1XQh5f_r8/s1600/29_Star_Diamond_Pattern.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="168" width="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qA1oaX_vMFY/UKKXlGgYq1I/AAAAAAAAAgg/eM1XQh5f_r8/s320/29_Star_Diamond_Pattern.png" /></a></div><br><b>The Great Star:</b><br><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0RoEqpeFTHE/UKKYhY_EgGI/AAAAAAAAAg0/FpyoMzRVj0E/s1600/51_Star_Star.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="168" width="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0RoEqpeFTHE/UKKYhY_EgGI/AAAAAAAAAg0/FpyoMzRVj0E/s320/51_Star_Star.png" /></a></div><br>Poetically symbolizing the national slogan, “<i>E pluribus unum</i>,” the great star design was popular at the same time as the diamond. Examples are known to exist for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_20_Star_GreatStar_Flag.svg">20 stars</a> after Congress passed the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Acts_(United_States)#Flag_Act_of_1818">Flag Act of 1818</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_26_Star_GreatStar_Flag.svg">26 stars</a> after the admission of Michigan, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_33_Star_GreatStar_Flag.svg">33 stars</a>, again for Oregon (pictured below).<br><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8RH7Fn_Ysqw/UKKYXpHeVuI/AAAAAAAAAgo/b4WoJgJfShE/s1600/33_Star_GreatStar_Flag.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="168" width="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8RH7Fn_Ysqw/UKKYXpHeVuI/AAAAAAAAAgo/b4WoJgJfShE/s320/33_Star_GreatStar_Flag.png" /></a></div><br><b>Concentric Circles:</b><br><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GjIAaHanE4w/UKKYqKbifSI/AAAAAAAAAhA/RUQsLRJPWTU/s1600/51_Star_Rings.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="168" width="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GjIAaHanE4w/UKKYqKbifSI/AAAAAAAAAhA/RUQsLRJPWTU/s320/51_Star_Rings.png" /></a></div><br>Ever since the original <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_flag_13_stars_%E2%80%93_Betsy_Ross.svg">Betsy Ross flag</a>, circles have been popular. Indeed, the design used by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_51-star_alternate_flag.svg">proponents of Puerto Rican statehood</a> is based on a circle. However, the Prolix Patriot offers a more traditional design based on the very popular concentric circle designs of the late 1800’s with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_36_Star_Wagon_Wheel_Flag.svg">36 stars after</a> the admission of Nevada, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_37_Star_Medallion_Centennial_Flag.svg">37 stars</a> after the admission of Nebraska, and perhaps the grandest of all, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_38_Star_Flag_concentric_circles.svg">38 stars</a> after the admission of Colorado (pictured below). There was also an unofficial <a href="http://flagspot.net/flags/us-39.html#mcn">39-star design</a> with concentric circles which was never used.<br><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FJllYMw11mQ/UKKZYGvPokI/AAAAAAAAAhM/bJaiPf2qUn0/s1600/38_Star_Flag_Circles.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="168" width="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FJllYMw11mQ/UKKZYGvPokI/AAAAAAAAAhM/bJaiPf2qUn0/s320/38_Star_Flag_Circles.png" /></a></div><br>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_flag_51_stars.svg">standard square pattern</a> of stars has been around from the beginning, but why not jazz it up a little bit? When the 51st state finally joins the Union, let's think outside the box.<br><br><br><div style='width: 100%'><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-51st-state.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-3963378259362757036Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:56:00 +00002012-11-05T12:05:10.476-05:00ElectionsFreedomGovernmentHistoryObamaReligionAn Appeal to Heaven<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-belsBhIcEbU/UJft3_zfJ2I/AAAAAAAAAf8/S2sgJY0Z3eI/s1600/An_Appeal_to_Heaven_Flag.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none; margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="213" width="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-belsBhIcEbU/UJft3_zfJ2I/AAAAAAAAAf8/S2sgJY0Z3eI/s320/An_Appeal_to_Heaven_Flag.png" /></a><br>The Pine Tree Flag</div><br><br>The day of the election is at hand. The Prolix Patriot has written before in these pages of the <a href="http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/search/label/Religion">attacks on religious freedom</a> by the Obama Administration. If the President is re-elected tomorrow, these attacks will doubtlessly continue with renewed hostility and vigor. Furthermore, regardless of which candidate wins tomorrow (or in the following weeks if it's very close) people of all religions will still have great difficulty living according to their faith in our decadent society.<br><br>Whether in the abuses heaped upon celebrities like Tim Tebow or a formerly anonymous <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/21/us/new-york-bullied-bus-monitor/index.html">elderly bus monitor</a> in New York, we live in a culture that despises virtue. In the 22nd Psalm, we find a <a href="http://drb.scripturetext.com/psalms/22.htm">description of the persecutions</a> that have always faced people of faith and conviction. Whether in the jeers of unruly schoolyard bullies or the hectoring of the liberal media, people of faith seem to always be on the defensive, but as the scripture tells us, this is all to be expected for those who seek the path of righteousness.<br><br>Religion tolerates unbelief because we have faith that with time and love we can convert the hard of heart to a fuller understanding. All we ask is to be allowed to practice our faith in the meanwhile. When the government joins in that attack however, the situation becomes more desperate. There are many policies which a religious person might find offensive, but President Obama has crossed an unprecedented line by requiring people of faith to violate their own consciences in the service of those policies.<br><br>It is altogether fitting then that an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Tree_Flag">early motto in the fight for independence</a> of this country was "An Appeal to Heaven." The phrase alludes to the works of John Locke, the philosophical forefather of American self-government.<br><br><blockquote>What is my Remedy against a Robber, that so broke into my House? <i>Appeal</i> to the Law for Justice. But perhaps Justice is denied, or I am crippled and cannot stir, robbed and have not the means to do it. If God has taken away all means of seeking remedy, there is nothing left but patience. But my Son, when able, may seek the Relief of the Law, which I am denied: He or his Son may renew his <i>Appeal</i>, till he recover his Right. But the Conquered, or their Children, have no Court, no Arbitrator on Earth to appeal to. Then they may <i>Appeal</i>, as <i>Jephtha</i> did, to <i>Heaven</i>, and repeat their <i>Appeal</i>, till they have recovered the native Right of their Ancestors, which was to have such a Legislative over them, as the Majority should approve, and freely acquiesce in.</blockquote><br>When the fate of freedom is at its most perilous, we may find our hopes dashed and our faith tested. However, we would all do well to <a href="http://drb.scripturetext.com/psalms/146.htm">remember the words</a> of the 146th Psalm, "Put not your trust in princes: in the children of men, in whom there is no salvation." The Prolix Patriot hopes that this will be the last word he ever needs to write about President Obama, but even if Obama is able to continue his attacks on religious liberty in a second term, there is a saying that God always settles out of court. Our faith may be attacked and even criminalized, but in the end, we shall prevail.<br><br><br><div style='width: 100%'><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/11/an-appeal-to-heaven.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-4843165776317714508Mon, 29 Oct 2012 22:00:00 +00002012-10-29T18:00:38.705-04:00HistoryWeatherWeather that Changed American History<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Py3U2napjUg/UI76LeCZCeI/AAAAAAAAAfo/h2Xijv77b5Q/s1600/frankenstorm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none; margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="213" width="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Py3U2napjUg/UI76LeCZCeI/AAAAAAAAAfo/h2Xijv77b5Q/s320/frankenstorm.jpg" /></a><br>Hurricane Sandy</div><br>As the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/post/hurricane-sandy-frankenstorm-floods-the-english-language/2012/10/29/9b396440-21c2-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_blog.html">monster hurricane</a> that has been dubbed "Frankenstorm" makes landfall on the eastern seaboard, it already seems clear this will be a historic weather event. In that spirit, the Prolix Patriot has compiled a list of ten major events in which weather affected the course of American History, presented in chronological order.<br><br>1. The Mayflower<br><br>In October of 1620, the Pilgrims encountered <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower#Pilgrims.27_voyage">fierce winter gales</a> in the North Atlantic. At several points during the voyage, the Mayflower's master, Christopher Jones, even considered returning to England and only continued on after realizing that the deteriorating weather might be even worse if he turned back. After making landfall at Cape Cod the Pilgrims attempted to sail south to their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River, but continued stormy weather made this impossible and after spending the winter aboard the ship they ultimately ended up settling what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts in the spring of the following year.<br><br>2. Cornwallis' Surrender at Yorktown<br><br>As the combined Continental and French forces under the command of General Washington and Comte de Rochambeau overran the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown#Assault_on_the_redoubts">last ring of British defenses</a> during the Siege of Yorktown in October of 1781, Lord Cornwallis attempted a desperate evacuation of his army across the James River at Gloucester Point, but was blocked by a sudden freak squall after only getting one group of boats across. The following morning he met with his officers and all agreed that their situation was now hopeless and they began to draw up the articles of capitulation which would bring the Revolutionary War to an end.<br><br>3. The Burning of Washington<br><br>In August of 1812, British Royal Marines under the command of Admiral George Cockburn landed in Maryland for an assault on the young nation's capital. After routing the American defenders at Bladensburg, the British <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington">sacked Washington and began setting public buildings on fire</a>. Fortunately, a hurricane arrived the very next day and the heavy rains extinguished the conflagration which preserved the exterior structure of the Capitol and the White House, prevented the fire from spreading to civilian structures, and also forced the British to return to their ships and depart from the city.<br><br>4. Burnside's "Mud March"<br><br>Despite his own incompetence and his inability to control the insubordination of his officers, President Lincoln decided to give General Ambrose Burnside one more chance to prove himself with an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_March_%28American_Civil_War%29">ill-fated winter offensive</a> in January of 1863. However, the muddy conditions caused by unseasonably mild weather slowed his progress to a standstill and forced him to abort the mission. In the end, this probably saved the Army of the Potomac from complete destruction or capture at the hands of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, because the early snowmelt was causing the Rappahannock River to rapidly flood, which would have cut off Burnside's only line of retreat. As a result of the fiasco, the bungling General Burnside was finally relieved of command which probably saved the lives of thousands upon thousands of his men.<br><br>5. The Great Johnstown Flood<br><br>In May of 1889, a massive rainstorm passed over the steep river valleys of southwestern Pennsylvania dumping an estimated 6-10 inches of rain in a 24-hour period. The extremely heavy rainfall caused the Conemaugh River to flood and crest the South Fork Dam, which soon collapsed, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown_Flood">releasing a torrent of 20 million tons of water</a> over the course of 40 minutes--an amount equal to the flow rate of the mighty Mississippi River. The aftermath of the flood was the first time the American Red Cross responded to a natural disaster and the unsuccessful attempts by the victims to obtain compensation from the dam's owners had lasting consequences in tort law.<br><br>6. The Dust Bowl<br><br>Throughout the 1930's, severe droughts killed off the fragile crops that were never meant for the semi-arid conditions of the Great Plains. Without plant roots to hold the fine soil together, strong winds tore up the dry soil and blew millions of tons of dust clouds across the empty prairie. With the economy already in ruins from the Great Crash of 1929, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl">persistent agricultural failure and ecological devastation</a> of the Dust Bowl caused untold hardships, illness, starvation, and displacement for prairie farmers and worsened the economic calamity of the Great Depression.<br><br>7. The Battle of the Bulge<br><br>During the winter of 1944, Allied forces under the supreme command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower had slowed their advance through the thick forests of the Ardennes. Under <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge">heavy cloud cover</a>, the Germans launched a last-ditch winter offensive on December 16 which might have succeeded if the weather had not cleared just in time for Allied air power to finally relieve battered ground forces tenaciously holding out at key crossroads blocking the Germans' access to crucial resupply. Also, due to the extremely cold temperatures tanks and trucks had to keep their engines running to prevent the diesel fuel from gelling which may have contributed to the German defeat by forcing them to expend their limited fuel reserves more quickly.<br><br>8. Typhoon Cobra<br><br>On the same day the Germans launched their attack, but on the other side of the world, Admiral Halsey was trying to resupply his forces that were launching attacks against Japanese airfields in the Philippines. On December 17, as the weather rapidly worsened, Halsey received <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Cobra_%281944%29">incorrect weather reports</a> and unwittingly sailed his entire fleet directly into a massive typhoon instead of away from it. The violent winds in excess of 100 m.p.h. caused damage and losses comparable to a defeat in a major fleet engagement. The disaster likely delayed the American recapture of the Philippines and caused Halsey to be temporarily relieved of command although he was later reinstated.<br><br>9. The Challenger Disaster<br><br>The Space Shuttle Challenger was originally scheduled to launch on January 22, 1986, but delays eventually pushed the launch back to January 28. During that time, south Florida experienced <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster">unusually cold temperatures</a> which plummeted well below freezing on launch day itself. This combined with a design flaw in the infamous O-ring seals to cause a catastrophic failure of the Challenger and the death of all aboard--including the first civilian astronaut, Christa McAuliffe. The disaster was a major setback to the space program and delayed the next attempt to send a civilian into space by many years.<br><br>10. Hurricane Katrina<br><br>After causing destruction across the Bahamas and south Florida, Hurricane Katrina made its third landfall on August 29, 2005 near Biloxi, Mississippi. As the storm flattened towns on the Gulf Coast, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina">tidal surge and heavy rains combined to overflow the levee system</a> around New Orleans causing more than 1,800 deaths and more than $100 billion in damage. The perceived inability of the George W. Bush Administration to respond effectively in aftermath of Katrina was greatly exaggerated at the time, but nevertheless caused a shift in public opinion from which he never recovered and resulted in huge losses for his party in the 2006 election.<br><br><br><div style='width: 100%'><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/10/weather-that-changed-american-history.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-5907443520042486140Wed, 24 Oct 2012 19:29:00 +00002012-10-24T16:43:39.375-04:00DemocratsElectionsHistoryObamaRepublicansAs Goes Ohio...<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-L9Ue-6tdc5k/UIg_pCVDVuI/AAAAAAAAAfI/0BLvKI8e9W0/s1600/Bellwethers.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="170" width="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-L9Ue-6tdc5k/UIg_pCVDVuI/AAAAAAAAAfI/0BLvKI8e9W0/s320/Bellwethers.png" /></a></div><br>As we enter the final two weeks of this election cycle, let us consider the question of whether President Obama or Governor Romney can win without Ohio. Currently, the only two bellwether states with any kind of reputation are Ohio and Nevada. These two states have only voted against the winner three times between them in the last hundred years: Nevada once in 1972 and Ohio twice in 1944 and 1960, and that last was one of the closest elections in history. Ohio especially, which has a population of 11.5 million to Nevada's 2.7 million, has become THE essential state to win for anyone who seeks the Presidency. Thus we have the saying, "As goes Ohio, so goes the Union."<br><br>You may be asking yourself, what is a bellwether anyway? The bell is obvious enough, but the wether has nothing to do with meteorology, but rather derives from the German <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wether">widar or ram</a> and is most often encountered in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep">animal husbandry</a>. The story goes that shepherds would place a bell around the neck of a castrated ram (the wether) to keep track of the whole flock, the thinking being that the ram would stay with his ewes wherever they roamed. This is not the most flattering comparison, but nevertheless, residents of bellwether states typically consider it a point of pride because of the unique role they play as an indicator of broader trends in electoral politics.<br><br>Following the etymology then, the chart above classifies states into sheep and bellwethers based on comprehensive election results from <a href="http://uselectionatlas.org/">Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections</a>. The sheep (shaded in yellow) are states which have voted with the winner three or more election cycles in a row. Aside from Franklin D. Roosevelt, no president has served more than two full terms--and indeed this is now constitutionally prohibited--so three in a row is more than just happenstance. The bellwethers (shaded in green) are states that have voted with the winner for three decades or more and have begun to acquire a more exceptional historical status.<br><br>Returning to our original question then, let us assume that <a href="http://www.270towin.com/2012_election_predictions.php?mapid=QGV">Romney will win Florida, North Carolina, Missouri, and Virginia</a>. It is possible then that Romney could win Colorado, Nevada, Iowa, and New Hampshire and go on to win the Presidency without Ohio. Meanwhile, Obama could <a href="http://www.270towin.com/2012_election_predictions.php?mapid=QGZ">theoretically win those same four states</a> while losing Ohio to Romney and still win the election. However, both scenarios are quite unlikely. According to the <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/2012_elections_electoral_college_map.html">RealClearPolitics polling averages</a>, Colorado and New Hampshire are to the right of Ohio while Iowa and Nevada are to the left. Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that whoever wins Ohio will win the election.<br><br>It is worth noting that bellwethers are fundamentally a backwards-looking indicator of broader trends. As the old adage goes, "Every streak is good until it isn't." For example, as recently as 2004, Missouri and Tennessee were considered reliable bellwethers of the electorate, but both went to McCain in 2008 by a large margin. However, as the graph below illustrates, it is also true that if either Ohio or Nevada loses its bellwether status, there would be fewer such states than at any time since the end of Reconstruction--and that was with fewer states in the Union overall. Therefore, we can still make a few predictions about this election in the larger context of history.<br><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-g37nCGgykPo/UIhAnMeQw9I/AAAAAAAAAfU/V9PmtY35CKc/s1600/Bellwethers2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="192" width="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-g37nCGgykPo/UIhAnMeQw9I/AAAAAAAAAfU/V9PmtY35CKc/s320/Bellwethers2.png" /></a></div><br>If Ohio and Nevada lose their bellwether status and the election is decided on the barest of margins, it would signal that we have entered a new era of extreme hyper-partisanship similar to the <i>antebellum</i> period. In this scenario, Obama would certainly have lived up to his apparent goal of <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/17/lincoln.obsession/">emulating the last President to come from Illinois</a>, although not in a very good way. It would be a tragedy if after everything we have suffered through in the last four years that Obama's greatest similarity to Abraham Lincoln ends up being a legacy of bitter division and distrust.<br><br>There is also the possibility that Obama wins re-election with a broad mandate. In this case, Obama would be able to consolidate the disastrously extreme liberal policies of his first term and it seems likely that the Democrats' dream of a permanent majority would finally come true. Fortunately for conservatives, this seems more and more unlikely with each new poll. If Obama does win, it will almost certainly be by the narrowest of margins.<br><br>Finally, if Romney wins a solid victory it would signal a continuing realignment in American politics that started during the 1990's with the elderly and socially-conservative minorities continuing to assert ever greater importance in the electorate. The sheep today could become bellwethers of tomorrow. In the continuing realignment scenario, states like Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, and especially Florida--all of which are leaning towards Romney in the most recent polls--may eventually overtake Ohio in electoral importance in future years. However, in this election, it’s still up to Ohio.<br><br><br><div style='width: 100%'><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/10/as-goes-ohio.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-79249076150584940Wed, 17 Oct 2012 17:44:00 +00002012-10-17T13:48:26.609-04:00DefenseDemocratsFreedomMediaObama"Check the Transcript"<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I0jsflyBXBU/UH7t8LvMeaI/AAAAAAAAAeo/cNO-R3AyeYU/s1600/Med_stenotype.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none; margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="255" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I0jsflyBXBU/UH7t8LvMeaI/AAAAAAAAAeo/cNO-R3AyeYU/s320/Med_stenotype.jpg" /></a><br>On the record is forever</div><br>When Obama said, "Check the transcript," during last night’s presidential debate, it could have been the big line of the evening, but that will depend on whether Romney or his surrogates use it to advantage. The consensus is that Obama <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/16/politics/debate-mainbar/index.html">got the better of Romney last night</a>, if only because he actually showed up this time, which was viewed as an infinite improvement over his previous performance. Nevertheless, Obama's imperative to "check the transcript" viz. the Libya 9/11 attack and subsequent cover-up is a potential opening that may make Obama's victory last night a Pyrrhic one.<br><br>When you check old transcripts, sometimes you come up with inconvenient quotes. For example, the Weekly Standard notes that Hillary Clinton <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/hillary-clinton-2008-buck-stops-oval-office_654618.html">once said</a>, "The buck stops in the Oval Office" which conflicts with her statement yesterday that responsibility for the security lapses in Benghazi is hers alone. Another example, in the VP debate there was <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/10/11/162754053/transcript-biden-ryan-vice-presidential-debate">this exchange</a>:<br><br><blockquote>MS. RADDATZ: What were you first told about the attack? Why were people talking about protests? When people in the consulate first saw armed men attacking with guns, there were no protesters. Why did that go on for weeks?<br>VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Because that's exactly what we were told —<br>MS. RADDATZ: By who?<br>VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: — by the intelligence community. The intelligence community told us that. As they learned more facts about exactly what happened, they changed their assessment.<br></blockquote><br>If Biden was being truthful, then Obama didn't know on September 12 that the Libya attack was an act of terrorism and yet Obama claimed last night that he did know and that in his Rose Garden remarks, he said as much. Well, Mr. President, let's follow your advice to <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/12/remarks-president-deaths-us-embassy-staff-libya">check the transcript</a> on that (emphasis added):<br><br><blockquote>As Americans, let us never, ever forget that our freedom is only sustained because there are people who are willing to fight for it, to stand up for it, and in some cases, lay down their lives for it. Our country is only as strong as the character of our people and the service of those both civilian and military who represent us around the globe.<br><br><b><i>No acts of terror</i></b> will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America. We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act. And make no mistake, justice will be done.<br><br>But we also know that the lives these Americans led stand in stark contrast to those of their attackers. These four Americans stood up for freedom and human dignity. They should give every American great pride in the country that they served, and the hope that our flag represents to people around the globe who also yearn to live in freedom and with dignity.<br></blockquote><br>The <i>only mention of terror</i> was a banal generality in his closing statement. Worse still, the statement is false. In the very same speech he criticized an American citizen for exercising his freedom and the right to free speech which is one of the "values that we stand for." That citizen is now in jail on trumped-up charges of violating probation for an entirely unrelated matter. So in fact, an act of terror did alter the character of this great nation. We now put citizens in jail for purely political reasons. That's something they do in Venezuela or Cuba or Iran before an "election." Not in America.<br><br>Furthermore, the quote that was reported at the time was when the President said, "We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others." That was the storyline that the Obama Administration was pushing with their liberal media allies, not the terror angle.<br><br>Ironically, Candy Crowley speaking to the CNN post-debate panel said that the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=athcyCTnTTs">moderator was incorrect</a> when she supported the President's "check the transcript" line. Unfortunately the moderator happened to be herself. More puzzlingly still, Crowley also made <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/10/16/Flashback-Crowley-To-Axelrod-Obama-Never-Said-Benghazi-Attack-Was-Act-Of-Terror-On-Day-After">statements on the record</a> that directly rebut Obama's and her own assertion that the administration immediately recognized that Libya was a terror attack. At the time she said, “There's a back and forth now about why didn't this administration -- why did it take them until Friday after a [Tuesday] September 11th attack in Libya to come to the conclusion that it was premeditated and that there was terrorists involved."<br><br>Even then, Crowley was being very generous. Even on September 25th, terrorism in reference to Libya was still that-which-must-not-be-named for the President. The Prolix Patriot <a href="http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/09/from-tucson-to-turtle-bay.html">wrote in these</a> pages several weeks ago about the <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/25/remarks-president-un-general-assembly">President’s UN speech</a>:<br><br><blockquote>Just as with the Tucson massacre, the motives of the killers in Libya are very clear. This was not a "protest" against an amateur video. This was an act of pure slaughter in violation of every precept of international law and diplomacy. Despite this, and even though leaders in the intelligence community, the Secretary of State, and his own Press Secretary have all admitted that it was a premeditated and overt act of terror aimed directly at the United States, the President only mentioned the word "terrorism" once in his address—and not even in reference to the violence in Libya.<br></blockquote><br>The most memorable line from that speech was, "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam." Even weeks after the attack, the President was still hanging--nay clinging--to the video protest story, even when it was thoroughly discredited by everyone around him.<br><br>There are also other clips out there, for example the President equivocating about the nature of the Libya attack while being interviewed on "The View." [N.B., it's a sad state of affairs in journalism today when the pack of liberal harpies on "The View" are tougher on the President than the moderator of a nationally-televised debate.]<br><br>Out of all of this, we have two potential explanations. Either the President knew it was a terrorist attack and deliberately mislead the American people for weeks until the lie started to unravel, or he genuinely did not know even when everyone around him had already admitted it. Both are disturbing prospects. Worse still, given Obama's aloofness from foreign affairs, both are entirely plausible.<br><br>Unfortunately, most people in this country are not following the Libya story--which is a shame, because it has very real consequences for the security of our country. Nevertheless, the economy is still the number one issue of this election, and in that area, Romney <a href="http://nation.foxnews.com/2012-presidential-debates/2012/10/17/post-debate-cnn-poll-romney-buries-obama-economy">completely dominated the President last night</a>.<br><br>Regardless of whether Romney made an unforced error or cleverly flushed Obama out into the open, it may not even matter. The real question is whether Romney sees this as a potential opening and decides to capitalize on it, or decides to just stay focused on the economy and jobs and let the Libya story fester inside the beltway until it starts to really stink.<br><br>That said, foreign policy really should be more of an issue in this election. As a friend observed during the debate, the President has many powers, but he is not able to repeal the laws of supply and demand. Even though the economy stinks, the President can only do so much about it, whereas on foreign policy, the President literally has a sworn obligation to protect the American people.<br><br>We live in an increasingly dangerous world. Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, and others are up to no good. Al Qaeda is rebuilding across the Muslim world. Piracy is still a threat to our shipping off the Horn of Africa and in the Straits of Malacca. The Drug Wars in Mexico continue to spill over into border towns and even deep into the country to places as far north as Denver and Detroit.<br><br>The President's handling of the Libya attack can best be described as a fiasco. Instead of just admitting that we were unprepared, this whole cover-up demonstrates that politics no longer stops at the water’s edge, especially when foreign events are inconvenient to the President's political fortunes and aspirations. The last four years under this President have been dark and perilous times. We should recoil in sheer horror when we even begin to imagine what another four years would look like.<br><br><br><div style='width: 100%'><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/10/check-transcript.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-4726530130361049010Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:20:00 +00002012-10-12T12:22:29.083-04:00DemocratsElectionsGovernmentHistoryReligionRepublicansA Liberal Chameleon<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lu3pZTdmhPs/UHhBLmC5H_I/AAAAAAAAAeU/tnROYbZlCl4/s1600/Chameleon1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none; margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lu3pZTdmhPs/UHhBLmC5H_I/AAAAAAAAAeU/tnROYbZlCl4/s320/Chameleon1.jpg" /></a><br>If You Don't Like My Principles, I Have Others</div><br>Last night's vice-presidential debate was the first time in our nation's history when two Catholics shared that stage, but this was not the only historic first of the evening. It was also the first time that a nationally televised debate constantly seemed on the edge of becoming a <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100184761/the-vice-presidential-debate-was-bidens-smile-vs-ryans-eyes-the-eyes-may-have-it-just/">drunken bar brawl</a>. Throughout the evening, Biden was playing to his far-left base, and like a chameleon, displayed all the left's most unattractive qualities. He was by turns haughty, surly, and morose. Meanwhile, on the other side of the stage, Ryan was calm and consistent. Both men played to type in a way that was deeply revealing of their political philosophies.<br><br>In the opening phase, mainly in the area of foreign policy, the Vice President laughed and sneered with derision at every word that Congressman Ryan spoke, drawing <a href="http://spectator.org/blog/2012/10/11/paul-ryan-vs-the-joker">unflattering comparisons to the Joker</a> from the Batman comics. The left's unserious mockery of opposing views is all too common in public discourse today, such as when then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08uk99L8oqQ">snorted at the suggestion</a> that the ObamaCare individual mandate might be unconstitutional. In the end, the joke was on her when the Supreme Court held that the <a href="http://reason.com/blog/2012/06/28/supreme-court-rejects-obamas-commerce-cl">commerce clause does have limits</a>, and that the individual mandate could only be constitutional if construed as a tax.<br><br>Then, the topic shifted to the economy to entitlements in the second phase, and as Chris Wallace <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/chris-wallace-shocked-by-bidens-disrespectful-openly-contemptuous-debate-treatment-of-ryan/">observed with evident dismay</a>, "I don't believe that I've ever seen a debate in which one participant was as openly disrespectful of the other as Biden was to Paul Ryan tonight." Vice President Biden and so-called moderator Martha Raddatz <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/10/12/liberal-media-split-over-how-to-spin-raddatz-and-biden-performance-at-debate/">noticeably combined forces</a>, at one point almost constantly interrupting Congressman Ryan and cutting him off without letting him respond to Biden's increasingly vicious verbal attacks. It is telling that in the area where Ryan is strongest--on economic and fiscal issues--there seemed to be a deliberate effort to block him from speaking.<br><br>On this point, many conservatives might complain of media bias, but during his debate preparations, Paul Ryan probably knew it was going to happen and decided to take the high road anyway. In the aftermath of Obama's humiliating defeat in the previous debate, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/05/us/politics/after-debate-a-harsh-light-falls-on-jim-lehrer.html?_r=0">many liberals criticized Jim Lehrer for not being assertive enough</a> and Martha Raddatz obviously got the message. Both were terrible moderators for different reasons, but whereas Jim Lehrer's legacy as a well-respected veteran news anchor from an earlier and more civilized age remains intact, Martha Raddatz's fifteen minutes of fame are over, and she will now return to the comfortable obscurity she deserves as a correspondent for a network news program that <a href="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/evening-news-ratings-in-a-word-down/">hardly anybody watches anymore</a>.<br><br>As the debate entered its mercifully brief final phase, Biden's tone changed dramatically when questioned about his views on abortion in the context of his professed Catholic faith. Shifting from his earlier jocosity and bravado, he suddenly seemed to bow his head and assumed a very serious and reverent tone of voice--almost as if seeking absolution for his many sins--as he tried to explain his own <a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/biden-my-religion-defines-my-life-pope-there-grave-and-clear-obligation-oppose">warped personal vision of Catholicism</a> which somehow permits murder of the unborn under one of the <a href="http://worldabortionlaws.com/map/">most grotesque abortion policies in the entire world</a>. Even atheist liberal European countries have some limits on when and how abortions can be performed, but not in Joe Biden's America.<br><br>Through it all, Paul Ryan maintained his composure and, like an accountant, stuck to the numbers and the hard facts throughout the debate. His performance was entirely consistent with his whole worldview, as a man of faith who is guided by principles over political considerations. Conversely, Biden constantly changed his mode of attack, just as he has <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=biden+flip+flops+-romney+-ryan">changed his positions on the issues</a> many times throughout his long career in the Senate. In the end, the liberal chameleon finally showed his true colors, and we were offered the clearest picture so far in this entire election of how extreme and how unhinged the political left has become.<br><br><br><div style='width: 100%'><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-liberal-chameleon.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-8081170199780506787Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:53:00 +00002012-10-02T10:58:12.829-04:00DemocratsEconomyGovernmentObamaWhat Goes Around Comes Around<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BgRlP9zK9Ko/UGr-HbPxPWI/AAAAAAAAAeA/F5QSDxIudjY/s1600/flamethrower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="213" width="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BgRlP9zK9Ko/UGr-HbPxPWI/AAAAAAAAAeA/F5QSDxIudjY/s320/flamethrower.jpg" /></a><br>Fighting Fire With Gasoline Doesn't Work.</div><br>President Obama claims to stand on the side of police, firefighters, paramedics, teachers, librarians, and other public-sector employees. This is perhaps true insofar as he has committed the federal government, and thus the American taxpayer, to spend inconceivable amounts of money to win the affections of these groups. However, the <a href="http://wtaq.com/news/articles/2012/oct/02/chicago-teachers-vote-whether-to-ratify-deal-that-ended-strike/">new contract that will be voted on today</a> by the Chicago Teachers Union and an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSxy2y556aw">internet video</a> being circulated by the International Association of Fire Fighters both make clear that in the long run, Obama's policies will do more harm than good for public-sector employees.<br><br>While most private sector employers and even the federal government have transitioned to defined-contribution plans like the 401(k), most municipal governments continue to use defined-benefit pension plans. Unfortunately, defined-benefit plans are going bankrupt because the money that was supposed to be set aside for future pension payments was spent frivolously by local governments during the boom times under the flawed assumption that the economy would always be good. Unlike the federal government, state and local governments can't just print money to pay their pensioners when expenses exceed revenues. They have to issue new debt which usually has to be approved by voters in a referendum.<br><br>The biggest reason for funding shortfalls in the great recession is the decline in home prices and thus property tax revenues on which local governments depend. The crisis is real. Because of their profligacy, cities like <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/23/stockton-bankruptcy-police-crime_n_1826100.html">Stockton, California</a> and <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/24/camden-nj-to-reboot-police-department-by-new-year/">Camden, New Jersey</a> are now unable to pay for even basic services like police. Eventually home prices and tax revenues will recover, but consider that sometime in the next 20-30 years there will be another major recession and tax revenues will collapse again, except that if we don't have pension and entitlement reform, next time the burden of payments on state and local governments will be many times worse than what we have seen in the last few years.<br><br>Of course, senior employees who have dedicated their whole lives to serving public health, safety, and education are right to be upset that their retirement is now in jeopardy. Any plan to address the public sector pension crisis must ensure that people do not lose the retirement that they have worked for. However, opposition to reform from public-sector unions like the IAFF and the CTU will ultimately result in less money to fund salaries, benefits, training, and equipment for their current and future employees as state and local governments are forced to spend more and more on pension payments. Moreover, just throwing more money at the problem now is like fighting fire with gasoline.<br><br>Winston Churchill <a href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/ethicalesq/2005/06/21/did-churchill-coin-that-over-30-maxim/">probably never said</a> that, "Any man who is under 30 and is not a liberal has no heart; and any man who is over 30 and is not a conservative has no brains," which is just as well, because it is false. As the slow-motion train wreck of the pension and entitlement crisis makes clear, people under 30 years of age have the most at stake in this election. If Obama is re-elected, his liberal policies of pandering and procrastination will continue and we will see more bailouts, more "stimulus" plans to pay for bankrupt public sector pension plans, and ever higher deficits and taxes to fund it all.<br><br>Who will pay these taxes? Obama has been traveling the country promising adoring college students that if he is elected they will not have to worry about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stafford_Loan">cost of federally-subsidized student loans</a> going up. What he isn't telling them is that his own ObamaCare law <a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/04/obamacare-complicating-some-student-loans/51480/">eliminated subsidies</a> for student loans issued by private banks, and that because of his policies, when their parents retire, current students will inherit a debt so shockingly enormous that a 3.4% increase in student loan interest will seem like a very small price to pay indeed. The old saying that "what goes around comes around" has never been more true.<br><br><br><div style='width: 100%'><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/10/what-goes-around-comes-around.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-708502261294237534Thu, 27 Sep 2012 14:35:00 +00002012-09-27T10:56:54.694-04:00DefenseFreedomHistoryObamaReligionFrom Tucson to Turtle Bay<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VsXjgwaz-SQ/UGRi1EhqltI/AAAAAAAAAds/SNCkmJlBWbI/s1600/cavalry_truce_branch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none; margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="220" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VsXjgwaz-SQ/UGRi1EhqltI/AAAAAAAAAds/SNCkmJlBWbI/s320/cavalry_truce_branch.jpg" /></a><br>Don't Shoot the Messenger</div><br>On January 12, 2011, President Obama delivered perhaps the finest speech of his presidency <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/01/12/remarks-president-barack-obama-memorial-service-victims-shooting-tucson">eulogizing the death of six innocent Americans</a> at the hands of a deranged gunman in Tucson, Arizona just a few days earlier. Now, in the year of an election, four Americans--including an ambassador--were murdered in a barbaric and savage attack on our diplomatic mission in Benghazi. For all the differences between these two events, they both have one thing in common: neither had anything to do with the exercise of free speech.<br><br>In his moving oratory at the campus of the University of Arizona, the President silenced a raucous crowd of students and sternly rebuked the politicians and commentators on the left who in the preceding days had <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/01/11/homeland-security-study-warned-of-right-wing-extremism.html">tried to lay the blame</a> for the massacre on the vibrancy of political expression and debate in this country. Earlier this week at a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, the President once again <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/25/remarks-president-un-general-assembly">spoke about the death of innocent Americans</a>, this time at the hands of terrorists, but the emphasis of his speech was very different.<br><br>After the rampage in Tucson in which Jared Loughner ended the life of a federal judge and a nine-year-old girl and severely wounded a congresswoman among his victims, liberal commentators pushed a narrative of violent rhetoric and incivility to explain the tragedy. However, as immediately became clear, the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-jared-loughner-plead-guilty-20120807,0,1931406.story">perpetrator had no political motives</a>, but was and is very mentally ill. Moreover, despite the calls for more restrained and civil discourse, political debate and the coverage of it in the media quickly resumed the same incendiary and vitriolic tone as before the murders.<br><br>Just as with the Tucson massacre, the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/benghazi-attack-called-terrorist/2012/09/19/90e74b52-0290-11e2-9b24-ff730c7f6312_story.html">motives of the killers in Libya are very clear</a>. This was not a "protest" against an amateur video. This was an act of pure slaughter in violation of every precept of international law and diplomacy. Despite this, and even though leaders in the intelligence community, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/27/clinton-suggests-libyan-consulate-attack-was-work-al-qaeda-affiliate/">the Secretary of State</a>, and his own Press Secretary have all admitted that it was a <a href="http://nation.foxnews.com/white-house/2012/09/20/carney-says-self-evident-benghazi-attack-was-terrorism">premeditated and overt act of terror</a> aimed directly at the United States, the President only mentioned the word "terrorism" once in his address—and not even in reference to the violence in Libya.<br><br><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443328404578020391263424644.html">Some commentators on the right</a> have observed that instead of unambiguously defending the sacred American right to free speech as he did in Tucson, the President's remarks were more calibrated for an international audience that is openly hostile to American values. Instead of speaking with determination and resolve, it seemed that the President was searching for common ground with people who wish to destroy us. Unsurprisingly, there was not much in common to be found. This is a valid criticism.<br><br>However, the focus on free speech misses the point. In Tucson, the murders were the work of a madman. In Benghazi, the amateur video that probably got more views <i>after</i> the attack than before was merely a pretext for a long-planned act of terror by religious fanatics who despise the United States. In both cases, we make the mistake of trying to explain and rationalize evil on our own terms, when in truth, the innocent and the virtuous are always the first casualty when we pretend that pure and incomprehensible evil does not exist in the world.<br><br><br><div style="width: 100%;"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script><br /></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script><br />http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/09/from-tucson-to-turtle-bay.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-2291829863208620170Tue, 11 Sep 2012 18:52:00 +00002012-09-27T10:36:25.721-04:00DefenseFreedomHistoryEleven<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-v0pHF_DZf4o/UE-Eb2WbCII/AAAAAAAAAdA/caB5_RVVIYQ/s1600/wtc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="226" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-v0pHF_DZf4o/UE-Eb2WbCII/AAAAAAAAAdA/caB5_RVVIYQ/s320/wtc.jpg" /></a><br>The <i>World</i> Trade Center</div><br>Today we remember that September 11th was an attack on America, but it is easy to forget that it was also a barbaric attack on all of human civilization. There were 372 citizens of more than <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_September_11_attacks#Foreign_casualties">90 foreign countries</a> among the casualties. A <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/cuomo-greek-orthodox-church-leveled-9-11-reaches-deal-port-authority-rebuild-wtc-article-1.964644">Christian church</a> and a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/nyregion/11religion.html?_r=1">Muslim prayer room</a> were obliterated in the carnage. America suffered the most, but <a href="http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/99665">everyone in the world</a> lost something on that day.<br><br>In the years since then, much has changed in the world. After years of searching, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-20058777.html">Osama bin Laden is dead</a>. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring">Arab Spring</a> has transformed a long-troubled part of the world in ways that will not be fully known for decades--and continues to be felt in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_civil_war">Syrian Civil War</a>. Iraq is now a sovereign nation free from the tyrannical rule of Saddam Hussein--<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/29/AR2006122900142.html">who is also dead</a>.<br><br>However, many threats to civilization remain. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_in_Somalia">Somalian pirates</a> continue to wreak havoc on the high seas off the Horn of Africa. Iran continues to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran">pursue nuclear weapons</a> and interfere with the internal politics of several Arab nations. The mission to prevent Afghanistan from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Enduring_Freedom">reverting to Taliban rule</a> continues. Meanwhile, halfway around the world, China is building up its military and aggressively pursuing a program of territorial expansion in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_disputes_in_the_South_China_Sea">South China Sea</a> and elsewhere.<br><br>As the most powerful nation in the history of the world, America has a responsibility to lead the community of nations and to preserve peace and international stability. If we fail to do so, September 11th will likely be surpassed as the darkest day in American history by something even more terrible. As we remember the attacks eleven years ago today, we must also remember that much work remains to ensure that the horror and destruction of that day is never repeated.<br><br><br><div style='width: 100%'><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/09/eleven.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-3342755203164605570Tue, 04 Sep 2012 18:09:00 +00002012-09-04T14:33:29.539-04:00DemocratsEconomyElectionsRepublicansJoe "Sixpack" Biden?<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UK90n_ri4L0/UEZC3flVJHI/AAAAAAAAAcs/tH0Jgtmgtz8/s1600/detail_from_detroit_industry_rivera.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="214" width="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UK90n_ri4L0/UEZC3flVJHI/AAAAAAAAAcs/tH0Jgtmgtz8/s320/detail_from_detroit_industry_rivera.jpg" /></a><br>They built it.</div><br>This past Labor Day weekend, one of the panelists on the "Chris Matthews Show" said something so preposterous that it defies belief, even for the shameless liberal pundits that are the staple of MSNBC’s political coverage. <a href="http://video.thechrismatthewsshow.com/player/?fid=31183">According to Joe Klein</a>, Congressman Paul Ryan is upper-middle class while, "Biden is a working class guy," (around 16:30)--not a symbol of the working class or born of a working class family, mind you, but actually working class in the here and now in his capacity as Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate.<br><br>The irony of this howler is even more bitter when we consider that Labor Day was once more than just the last day the pool is open and actually a real <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day">celebration of the working man</a>, like those glorified in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Industry_Murals">mural by Diego Rivera above</a>. Conversely, how can a man who has served in the Senate for nearly 40 years now ever be described as "working class" by any definition whatsoever? The U.S. Senate is modeled after the original <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_of_the_Roman_Republic">Roman Senate</a> for which membership was open only to the wealthiest and most prominent citizens of the Republic. As a practical matter, the same is true in America today.<br><br>Furthermore, if Paul Ryan--who, like Biden, has spent his entire career in public service--is wealthy and a symbol of Republican plutocracy with his comparatively modest income in the House of Representatives--which is modeled after the British House of Commons, incidentally--wouldn't that imply that Biden is also one of the evil wealthy capitalist pigs by virtue of his higher salary and longer tenure in the more august upper chamber?<br><br>The only other explanation for Biden’s lower socioeconomic status is that he has <a href="http://www.davemanuel.com/pols/joe-biden/">foolishly outspent his means</a> (all taxpayer funded, of course) and taken out a second mortgage on his million-dollar home, multiple lines of credit with his life insurance as collateral, and squandered more taxpayer funds on his <a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/09/bidens_expensive_commute_on_am.html">infamous first-class daily commute on Amtrak</a> while Ryan has carefully and judiciously <a href="http://www.davemanuel.com/pols/paul-ryan/">invested his more modest income</a> to build up a greater fortune for the security of his family and future generations.<br><br>Given that our overextended entitlement programs closely resemble Biden's finances, this comparison is particularly instructive. Who should we trust more to manage the public fisc? In these lean times, we should place our trust in the proverbial ants who built up their store of provisions during the days of plenty than with the profligate grasshopper Biden. Like the grasshopper of fable, <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=joe+biden+gaffes">Biden's song and dance</a> would be entertaining if we were at our ease in the golden days of summer.<br><br>We do not have that luxury. In these bleak and desperate times, we need men and women of substance and integrity like Congressman Ryan who understand that reforming entitlements is more than just a political game and is not merely necessary, but will become an existential crisis for our democracy if not solved within this decade. We cannot wait for 2016 to finally give serious thought to the defining issue of our age.<br><br>Fortunately for the future of this country, regardless of whether Mitt Romney wins or loses the election, Ryan will be in charge of the budget--either in the White House or in the House of Representatives. Democrats should be careful about mocking the man for his financial success, because they're going to have to work with him to mend the nation's finances whether they like it or not.<br><br><br><div style='width: 100%'><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/09/joe-sixpack-biden.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-3966195329983973998Wed, 29 Aug 2012 20:04:00 +00002012-08-29T16:05:25.398-04:00BritainFreedomGovernmentHistoryObamaReligionIs Barack Obama a Tory?<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7NWthlZjtw0/UD5zaDbFqbI/AAAAAAAAAcY/xtQj6PK3SNQ/s1600/Oliver_Cromwell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="258" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7NWthlZjtw0/UD5zaDbFqbI/AAAAAAAAAcY/xtQj6PK3SNQ/s320/Oliver_Cromwell.jpg" /></a><br>Lord Protector or Protection Racket?</div><br>Last week, <a href="http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/alex-massie/2012/08/is-barack-obama-a-tory/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=is-barack-obama-a-tory">a correspondent at Britain’s <i>Spectator</i></a> (not to be confused with the <a href="http://spectator.org/"><i>American Spectator</i></a>) posed this seemingly nonsensical question. If Toryism--or more broadly, conservatism--has any meaning at all, obviously the answer is no. However, on deeper reflection, this question is a good starting point to explore President Obama's governing philosophy. Clearly Obama is no conservative, but what sort of man is he? Using British history as our point of comparison, it is clear that Barack Obama has much more in common with the Roundheads than the Tories.<br><br>The argument advanced in the piece is that "the goal of the Obama Administration has been the preservation of the status quo" and "minimally disturbing existing economic and political arrangements" which is falsely given as the core of "small-c" conservatism. This sounds like Burkean pragmatism, and while Edmund Burke is certainly an intellectual father of modern conservative thought on both sides of the Atlantic, he was a Whig and spent his political career opposing the Tories in pursuit of reform, especially religious and economic freedom for Catholics in Ireland.<br><br>Moreover, Burke <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=QfPhAAAAMAAJ&lpg=PA340&ots=5j30J9xBy_&dq=We%20must%20all%20obey%20the%20great%20law%20of%20change.%20It%20is%20the%20most%20powerful%20law%20of%20nature%2C%20and%20the%20means%20perhaps%20of%20its%20conservation.&pg=PA340#v=onepage&q=We%20must%20all%20obey%20the%20great%20law%20of%20change.%20It%20is%20the%20most%20powerful%20law%20of%20nature,%20and%20the%20means%20perhaps%20of%20its%20conservation.&f=false">argued that change</a> is "the most powerful law of nature" and since it cannot be avoided, should be guided "by insensible degrees" to the best possible outcomes. Many modern-day conservatives accept this decidedly Whiggish maxim and are willing to make short-term compromises in order to gradually advance a principled agenda that strengthens individual rights, the family, and the role of faith in society. This is not what Obama has done.<br><br>Then-candidate Obama campaigned in 2008 on the now-tired slogan of "<a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123462728">Hope and Change</a>," which is to say, he did not merely accept change as inevitable, but actively sought to cause it--and by the most radical means possible. Indeed, Obama has been deeply antagonistic towards long-established businesses and civic institutions in a way which would horrify Burke. While being heckled by Occupy Wall Street protesters last year, <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-occupy-wall-st-protesters-you-are-reason-i-ran-office_610041.html">he even said as much</a>.<br><br>Rather than a Tory or even a Whig, the President's philosophy is frighteningly similar to the Puritan revolution lead by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell">Oliver Cromwell</a>. In particular, Obama and his supporters have engaged in an all-out attack on faithful Catholics and religious conservatives. While preaching "tolerance" and "choice," Obama's policies are in fact quite the opposite. Even the liberal wing of the Supreme Court recognized Obama's attack on freedom of religion went too far in the landmark <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosanna-Tabor_Evangelical_Lutheran_Church_and_School_v._EEOC">Hosanna-Tabor case</a>.<br><br>At the same time, the mob mentality of Obama's most ardent supporters is becoming more evident. Just this past month, we have seen a <a href="http://newsbusters.org/blogs/paul-wilson/2012/08/14/abc-cbs-nbc-ignore-chick-fil-vandalism-incidents">rash of vandalism</a> against Chick-fil-A franchises due to the religious beliefs of the restaurant chain's founder. Meanwhile, a gunman <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/08/17/NY-Times-Family-Research-Council-Shooting-POSSIBLY-Driven-by-Politics">attempted to murder</a> the employees of a conservative non-profit while toting a backpack full of Chick-fil-A sandwiches. It is also worth noting that the Occupy Wall Street movement has <a href="http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/10/11/occupy-wall-street-has-an-anti-semitism-problem/">repeatedly employed anti-Semitic rhetoric</a>. To be sure, these are isolated actions of deranged individuals—-but for how long?<br><br>Insofar as Obama is using his power to attack the rights of religious people and to delegitimize freedom of worship and expression in the public square, he bears some of the responsibility for this disturbing trend towards unruly mobs and hateful violence. His radical governing philosophy of intolerance and coercion has been adopted by his supporters with increasingly disconcerting results. America is generally a peaceful and democratic society, but even we are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing#Violence">not immune to outbreaks of political violence</a>.<br><br>Burke himself bitterly opposed the French Revolution and watched with horror as the chaos quickly devolved into what we now call totalitarianism. As a community organizer from the mean streets of South Chicago, Obama may have fooled himself that he can control the mob to do his bidding, but this is a dangerous course. If he were really a conservative and a student of history, he would know that, as with Cromwell, it's easy to stir up a mob into an agitated frenzy, but it's impossible to stop the mob when heads begin to roll.<br><br><br><div style='width: 100%'><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/08/is-barack-obama-tory.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-4994292239750713225Tue, 07 Aug 2012 20:37:00 +00002012-09-27T10:36:45.733-04:00GeographyHistoryTechnologyAre We There Yet?<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zka__fuQQP0/UCF749z3AzI/AAAAAAAAAb4/RXCTifinyeE/s1600/Sextant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="241" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zka__fuQQP0/UCF749z3AzI/AAAAAAAAAb4/RXCTifinyeE/s320/Sextant.jpg" /></a><br>19th Century Global Positioning System</div><br>With the ubiquitous nature of cellphones and global positioning satellites here on earth, we often take it for granted that it is now almost impossible to be truly lost. Short of leaving your cellphone behind and wandering off into an uncharted wilderness, one need only reach into a pocket to gain instant access to incredibly detailed maps and accurate coordinates. However, for the NASA <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/rss/msllanding_update.xml">Curiosity rover on Mars</a>, things aren’t so simple:<br><br><blockquote>Curiosity landed facing east-southeast within Gale Crater, with a heading of 112.7 degrees (plus or minus five degrees), and a few degrees of tilt. A Sol 1 overpass by Mars Odyssey will provide additional information on Curiosity's position and additional imagery. A first look at some color images taken just before landing by MSL's Mars Descent Imager also provided additonal [sic] information on the rover's precise location.</blockquote><br>There are a handful of man-made satellites in orbit around Mars, but none has the capabilities of the GPS constellation in orbit around earth. Instead, like mariners in the age of sail, NASA scientists must measure the angles between different landmarks in a process known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulation">triangulation</a> to calculate the exact position of the rover.<br><br>The next time you’re looking at real-time traffic updates on your phone while searching for an alternate route, consider how lucky you are. Even after a breathtakingly complicated journey between the planets that would not have been possible without the advancements of 21st century rocket science, the incredible machines on the surface of Mars must rely on ancient principles of navigation to get around.<br><br><br><div style='width: 100%'><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/08/are-we-there-yet.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-3372984636286446694Wed, 25 Jul 2012 15:33:00 +00002012-07-25T11:33:52.382-04:00DefenseFreedomGovernmentSupreme CourtUp In Arms<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-small; text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QdzHpo3mtqI/UBAQesbF5CI/AAAAAAAAAbo/XnXNCHH1acs/s1600/paul-reveres-ride.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: none; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QdzHpo3mtqI/UBAQesbF5CI/AAAAAAAAAbo/XnXNCHH1acs/s400/paul-reveres-ride.jpg" width="400" /></a><br>"The redcoats are coming!"</div><br />In the aftermath of the shooting spree in Aurora, Colorado, families and victims must somehow come to grips with the horror and senselessness of this tragedy. The process of healing will be long and difficult. Even as the motives and background of the killer are revealed, each bit of new information will not bring us closer to any answers. Evil is irrational. Nevertheless, liberal commentators in the media could hardly wait until the tear gas had cleared before pointing the blame squarely at the "gun lobby" and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/20/brian-ross-tea-party-colorado-shooting_n_1689471.html">conservatives more generally</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/tough-post-aurora-questions-gun-control-continue-president-obama-spokesman-commander-in-chief-supports-renewing-federal-ban-assault-weapons-article-1.1121107">Politicians and pundits on the left</a> have had no shame in capitalizing on the massacre to press for stricter gun control laws and otherwise limiting freedom in the name of somehow preventing a similar crime in the future. The favorite liberal prescription is to renew the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assault_Weapons_Ban">assault weapon ban</a> that was in force from 1994-2004 even though that same ban did not prevent the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battles_and_other_violent_events_by_death_toll#Terrorist_attacks">two worst acts of terrorism in American history</a> which claimed a combined 3,144 innocent lives. Indeed, neither atrocity involved any firearms at all.<br /><br />Furthermore, the term "assault weapon" is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assault_Weapons_Ban#Definition_of_assault_weapon">not rigorously defined</a> and often misused. Under the law in force from 1994-2004, the sale of various semi-automatic firearms was prohibited, but far more destructive fully-automatic firearms were still legal in many cases. At the same time, any law restricting gun ownership—even an outright repeal of the 2nd Amendment—would not stop the use of knives, blunt objects, strangulation, and poisons to commit murders just as gruesome as the terrible slaughter in Aurora, if not more so.<br /><br />It makes no difference what type of weapon is used to commit murder. Regardless of the laws concerning gun ownership, murder itself remains as illegal as ever. Conversely, criminals are unlikely to care whether or not the weapon they use to commit a crime is illegal. Laws do not prevent crime. By definition, criminals do not abide by the law. Psychopaths will always apply the full energies of their depraved and diabolical minds to devise new and shocking ways to kill and destroy.<br /><br />Rather, our system of laws is founded on the principle that a suspect is innocent until proven guilty. Even in such a heinous crime with hundreds of eyewitnesses, the government must introduce evidence to prove the guilt of the perpetrator. Once guilt has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, no punishment can be too harsh or too severe for the one who committed this crime, but to ban ownership of firearms is to presume that simply possessing a weapon is enough to imply guilt. This stands our system of laws on its head.<br /><br />As for the supposed influence of the "gun lobby," it is worth pointing out that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Rifle_Association">National Rifle Association</a> currently has a mere 4.3 million members. There are millions upon millions more law-abiding Americans who own firearms and do not consider the 2nd Amendment as a political issue at all, but rather as an expression of the innate right to defend oneself, one’s family, one’s home, and one’s country. The drafters of the <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/second_amendment">2nd Amendment</a> did not create this right, but merely recognized a right that had already existed from ancient times.<br /><br />The Supreme Court affirmed this in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_v._Heller"><i>Heller</i> case</a>. The founders’ intent for the 2nd Amendment was to maintain a "well-regulated" (i.e., well-armed and well-trained) citizens’ militia for common defense. As Americans, we are blessed with the most professional, best-trained, and most technologically advanced military in the world. However, the right of every citizen to bear arms remains the last line of defense should the unthinkable happen, and as long as the liberal advocates of curtailing our freedoms do not have their way, America will always be a country worth defending.<br /><br /><br /><div style="width: 100%;"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/07/up-in-arms.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-8361795861491017815Thu, 28 Jun 2012 22:03:00 +00002012-06-29T09:27:54.581-04:00FreedomHealth CareObamaSupreme CourtTaxesRoberts Rules<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; font-size: x-small"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aF3Inn7lqpw/T-zM6IsqSJI/AAAAAAAAAbU/JroUHd_13lY/s1600/St_Thomas_More.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:none;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aF3Inn7lqpw/T-zM6IsqSJI/AAAAAAAAAbU/JroUHd_13lY/s400/St_Thomas_More.jpg" /></a><br>St. Thomas More practiced civil disobedience before it was cool. </div><br>It is altogether fitting that the ruling in the ObamaCare case comes during the <a href="http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/fortnight-for-freedom/">Fortnight for Freedom</a>, which started on the Feast of St. Thomas More and ends on Independence Day. More gave his life for his faith in the ultimate act of civil disobedience. In our own time, Chief Justice Roberts quietly points to a fatal flaw of ObamaCare which may yet render the law unenforceable and impractical through sustained and widespread civil disobedience of a less violent nature.<br><br>In <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf">his discussion of the Congress' taxing power</a>, Roberts was careful to note that the penalty for not purchasing insurance is weak enough that it does not actually amount to compulsion. According to that test, if the tax was severe enough to amount to punishment or was enforceable by criminal penalties, it would run afoul of the Commerce Clause, but in this case the court judges that it does not fail the test. If a subsequent Congress increases the amount of the tax or attaches criminal penalties for failure to pay, ObamaCare could potentially fail that constitutional test and thus become open for re-litigation.<br><br>In particular, Roberts notes twice in his opinion that <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/5000A">26 U. S. C. §5000A(g)</a>--which concerns the penalty for not complying with the individual mandate--specifically states that the IRS may not enforce the penalty through criminal prosecution, additional penalties, or any lien or levy on personal property. In the event that the law is not repealed before 2014, the last resort is to simply disobey the law and refuse to pay the penalty. The Prolix Patriot is not a lawyer, but it seems plain enough that a law which cannot be enforced does not have any power.<br><br>Thus, in a ruling which superficially appears to uphold the most onerous provisions of ObamaCare, Chief Justice Roberts actually reduces the individual mandate “tax” to a nullity while at the same time drawing a bright line limiting the power of Congress under the commerce clause and the spending power as applied to the several states. Rather than viewing this as a defeat, opponents of ObamaCare should celebrate that Roberts’ ruling has opened many new avenues for subsequent legislation and litigation to eliminate ObamaCare’s abuses and also to restrain Congress’ seemingly limitless ambitions.<br><br>Moreover, as Roberts noted in his opinion, "It is not [the court’s] job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices." Instead of blaming Roberts for some imagined betrayal, opponents of ObamaCare should place the full blame for the law’s many shortcomings squarely at the feet of the laws namesake--President Obama himself. As presidential contender <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/romney-rid-obamacare-replace-obama/story?id=16671255">Mitt Romney said today</a>, "If we want to get rid of Obamacare, we're going to have to replace President Obama."<br><br><br><div style='width: 100%'><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/06/roberts-rules.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7847399041493108556.post-2771026923551188172Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:10:00 +00002012-06-20T14:14:18.862-04:00EnvironmentHistoryReligionA Midsummer Night's Dream<br /><div style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bK0w786A71I/T-IR28y2LwI/AAAAAAAAAbA/eY9NN6KU01U/s1600/Nativity_of_John_the_Baptist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: none; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bK0w786A71I/T-IR28y2LwI/AAAAAAAAAbA/eY9NN6KU01U/s320/Nativity_of_John_the_Baptist.jpg" width="320" /></a><br>Birth of St. John the Baptist, by Jacopo Pontormo</div><br>This Sunday is the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. The feast has been celebrated for millenia across the world as Midsummer--the same midsummer in Shakespeare's famous play--with festivities similar to Halloween in many ways, but emphasizing life instead of death. The media-created myth of the solstice as the first day of summer is a very recent innovation of our modern and decadent age.<br><br>Who can ignore or obscure the signs of summer all around us: the roses and tigerlillies have bloomed, lightning and lightning bugs fill the nights, the tender buds and shoots have changed to dark and thick green foliage, the wind now comes from the sea instead of the land, the winter wheat in farmers' fields is ready (or almost ready) for harvest, and of course, the pools have opened.<br><br>Do we really need the calendar or the television to tell us that summer arrived weeks and months ago?! Summer was already here long before the charlatans decreed that nature and the seasons must wait for the false precision and pseudoscience of the astronomical solstice. The profusion of life in nature waits for no man, and least of all the sham intellectuals and urbanites who are completely detached from nature, religion, history, and it seems, reality itself.<br><br><br><br /><div style="width: 100%;"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style"><a class="addthis_button_compact" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78">Share</a><span class="addthis_separator"></span><a class="addthis_button_facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_myspace" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_google" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><a class="addthis_button_twitter" href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=xa-4b9c52e52ea18f78" type="text/javascript"></script>http://prolixpatriot.blogspot.com/2012/06/midsummer-nights-eve.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joshua Bowman)0